HISTORIC 
CHURCHES 

OFT  AMERICA 


HISTORIC  CHURCHES   OF  AMERICA 


r 


The  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


HISTORIC    CHURCHES 
Of  AMERICA 


BY 

NELLIE   URNER  WALLINGTON 

it 

INTRODUCTION  BY 

EDWARD   EVERETT   HALE 


NE,W   YORK 
DUFFIELD    (El    COMPANY 

I9O7 


W3 


COPYRIGHT,  1907,  BY 
DUFFIELD  &  COMPANY 


Published  September,  1907 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction         .          .                     .          .,         •„         .  xi 

The  Old  South  Church,  Boston     .          .          .,         .  3 
The    first    Protestant    Church    in    America,    James- 
town, Virginia              .....  8 

St.  Peter's,  Whitehouse,  Virginia  .  .  .14 

The  Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire  17 

Trinity  Church,  Wilmington,  Delaware   ...  20 

King's   Chapel,   Boston          .....  26 

The    First    Presbyterian    Church,    Elizabeth,    New 

Jersey       .  .  .  .  .  .  .32 

Zion  Reformed  Church,  Allentown,  Pennsylvania     .  35 
St.  Anne's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Burlington, 

New  Jersey       ......  38 

St.  Michael's,  Marblehead,  Massachusetts        .          .  40 

Gloria   Dei,   Philadelphia 44 

"Old  North,"  Boston 47 

The  Old  Tennent  Church,  Freehold,  New  Jersey     .  50 
St.  George's,  Hempstead,  Long  Island   .           .           .52 

Trinity  Church,  Newport,  Rhode  Island            .           .  55 
St.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  Quebec,  Canada   .           .           ,58 

The  First  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  New  York  City  .  62 

Bruton  Parish  Church,  Williamsburg,  Virginia          .  65 

Church  of  the  Pilgrimage,  Plymouth,  Massachusetts  70 

St.  David's,   Radnor,   Pennsylvania          ...  73 

The  Old  Dutch  Church,  Albany,  New  York     .           .  79 

First  Church,  Hartford,  Connecticut        ...  82 
Catedral    de    la    Virgen    Maria    de    la    Concepcion, 

*    Havana     .......  87 

Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  Virginia         ...  90 

St.  George's  Church,  Newburgh,  New  York     .           .  94 


364731 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

St.  Luke's,  Smithfield,  Virginia  .  .  ,.  .98 
The  Reformed  Nether  Dutch  Church,  Schenectady, 

New  York 101 

San  Carlos  Borromeo,  Monterey,  California     .  .106 

Queen  Anne's  Chapel,  Fort  Hunter,  New  York  .      114 

Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Kingston,  New  York  .  118 
St.  George's  Church,  Schenectady,,  New  York  .  .  121 
The  Quaker  Meeting  House,  Flushing,  New  York  .  125 

St.  Ann's  Church,  Brooklyn 128 

Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Newtown,  Long  Island  .  131 
The  Old  Palatine  Church  in  the  Mohawk  Valley  .  135 
Center  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut  .  .138 

St.  John's  Church,  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire  .  142 
Trinity  Church,  St.  Paul's,  St.  John's,  St.  Mark's, 

New  York  City 145 

Christ  Church,  Bennington,  Vermont  .  .  .151 
The  Old  Ship  Church,  Hingham,  Massachusetts  .  153 
Caroline  Church,  Setauket,  Long  Island  .  .  .156 
The  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral,  The  City  of  Mexico  .  159 
The  Presbyterian  Church,  Southampton,  Long  Island  163 
The  First  Congregational  Church,  Dover,  New  Hamp- 
shire   166 

San  Xavier  del  Bac,  Tucson,  Arizona     .          .  171  - 

The  Dutch  Reformed  Church.  Herkimer,  New  York  .  173 
The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Saybrook,  Connecticut  .  1 76 
Christ  Church,  West  Haven,  Connecticut  .  .179 

Trinity  Church,  Fishkill,  New  York       .  .  .185 

San  Jose  de  Guadalupe,  San  Jose,  California  .  .      189 

St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany,  New  York  .  .  .194 

First  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Fishkill,  New  York  .  197 
Christ  Church,  Philadelphia  .  .  .  .200 

The  Old  Dutch  Church,  Tarrytown,  New  York  .  203 
St.  Paul's  Church,  Norfolk,  Virginia  .  .  .206 

First  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Flatbush,  Long  Island  209 
The  Moravian  Church,  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania  .  218 


CONTENTS  vii 

PAGE 

"  Old  Jerusalem,"  Portland,  Maine           .          .          .  222 

St.  Paul's,  East  Chester,  New  York       .          .          .  225 

First  Congregational  Church,  Salem,  Massachusetts  .  228 
The  Mormon  Tabernacle  and  Temple,  Salt  Lake  City, 

Utah 231 

St.  George's,  Philadelphia     .          .          .          .         ,.  234 

St.  Michael's,  Charleston,  South  Carolina         .          .  238 

St.  Andrew's,  Richmond,  Staten  Island  .          .          .  244 

Old  Mission  Church,  Mackinac  Island,  Michigan       .  248 

First  Presbyterian  Church,  Newark,  New  Jersey       .  253 

San  Miguel  Church,  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico       .          .  257 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Old  South  Church,  Boston       .  .  Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

Ruins  at  Jamestown,  Virginia          ....  8 

The   Old   North   Church,   Portsmouth,   New   Hamp- 
shire         .           .           .           .           .           .           .  18 

King's  Chapel,  Boston            .....  26 

Zion  Reformed  Church,  Allentown,  Pennsylvania       .  36 

St.  Michael's,  Marblehead,  Massachusetts        .           .  40 

The  Old  North  Church,  Boston      ....  48 

St.  George's,  Hempstead,  Long  Island   ...  52 

Bruton  Parish  Church,  Williamsburg,  Virginia          .  66 

St.  David's,  Radnor,  Pennsylvania          ...  74 

First  Church,  Hartford,  Connecticut       ...  82 

Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  Virginia        ...  90 

St.  Luke's,  Smithfield,  Virginia       ....  98 

San  Carlos  Borromeo,  Monterey,  California    .  .106 

The  Quaker  Meeting-house,  Flushing,  Long  Island  .  126 
Center  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut           .           .138 
Trinity  Church,  New  York  City     .           .           .           .146 

The  Old  Ship  Church,  Hingham,  Massachusetts        .  154 
The  Roman  Catholic  Cathedral,  the  City  of  Mexico  .  159 
The  First  Congregational  Church,  Dover,  New  Hamp- 
shire         .......  166 

The  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  Fort  Herkimer,  New 

York 174 

Christ  Church,  West  Haven,  Connecticut          .  .179 

San  Jose  de  Guadalupe,  San  Jose,  California            .  190 

St.  Peter's,  Albany,  New  York       .          .          .         t.,  194 

ix 


x         LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING  PAGE 

Christ  Church,  Philadelphia  .          .          .          .200 

St.  Paul's,  Norfolk,  Virginia  ....  206 
The  Moravian  Church,  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania  .  218 
St.  Paul's,  East  Chester,  New  York  .  .  .  226 

The  Mormon  Temple  and  Tabernacle,  Salt  Lake  City, 

Utah          . 232 

St.  Michael's,  Charleston,  South  Carolina          .  .238 

First  Presbyterian  Church,  Newark,  New  Jersey  .  254 
San  Miguel  Church,  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico  .  .258 


INTRODUCTION 

ONE  does  not  go  back  in  any  study  of  the  local 
history  of  any  part  of  the  United  States  without 
finding  himself  engaged  in  ecclesiastical  study, 
or  in  what  is  generally  called  the  history  of  re- 
ligion. Indeed,  this  is  of  course  when  we  consider 
how  closely  the  discovery  of  America  followed 
the  invention  of  printing.  For  the  history  of 
America  becomes  contemporary  with  the  history 
of  that  revolution  in  ecclesiastical  affairs  which 
we  call  the  Reformation,  which  was  in  itself  the 
immediate  result  of  the  invention  of  printing. 
Thus  the  life  of  Christopher  Columbus  is  the  life 
of  a  devout  religious  man.  When  you  come  to 
his  motive,  even  in  details  where  you  would 
hardly  expect  it,  you  find  tokens  of  his  loyalty 
to  the  religious  thought  and  instruction  of  his 
time. 

Mrs.  Wellington's  book,  which  I  introduce 
cordially  to  the  reader,  will  trace  in  some  detail 
the  first  steps  which  were  taken  in  different  parts 
of  the  nation  by  persons  of  distinct  religious  mo- 
tive who  had  exiled  themselves  from  Europe  and 
who  meant  to  maintain  their  allegiance  to  the 
living  God.  In  those  emigrations,  which  were 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

distinctly  made  because  the  emigrants  wanted  a 
closer  walk  with  God,  the  great  results  have  been 
worthy  of  their  origin.  Nobody  who  knows  what 
he  is  talking  about  pretends  to  say  that  in  the 
birth  of  every  European  colony  here  a  religious 
motive  was  the  only  motive.  But  this  is  certain, 
that  in  every  colony  which  as  it  grew  made  any 
important  contribution  to  the  life  of  the  America 
of  to-day,  the  religious  training  of  the  colonists 
is  to  be  the  subject  of  the  first  study. 

The  Island  of  Puerto  Rico,  the  latest  addition 
to  our  territory,  has  our  oldest  monuments  of 
European  or  Christian  civilisation.  The  Spanish 
settlement  at  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  was  made 
as  early  as  1565.  The  settlement  in  Santa  Fe 
in  New  Mexico  was  begun  perhaps  even  earlier 
than  that  of  St.  Augustine.  But  in  1680  the 
Indians,  whom  they  had  reduced  to  slavery,  re- 
volted, drove  out  the  Spaniards,  and  burned  their 
churches  and  archives.  The  present  city  of 
Santa  Fe  dates  back  to  the  year  1692.  Of  some 
of  the  earliest  of  these  settlements  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  the  existence  was  so  short  that 
we  have  not  even  the  ruins  of  their  places  of 
worship.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  sent  out  his  North 
Carolina  Colony  in  1584.  Doubtless  those  set- 
tlers maintained  religious  worship  on  Roanoke 
Island.  But  there  are  hardly  any  vestiges  of 
their  short-lived  occupation.  Before  that  time, 
the  Spaniards  had  attempted  to  colonise  the 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

western  shore  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  But  by  a 
singular  turn  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  on  which 
perhaps  the  history  of  the  world  changed,  the 
winter  proved  to  be  one  of  exceptional  severity. 
Those  men  who  were  used  to  the  West  Indies 
and  to  Spain  could  not  bear  its  severity  and  so 
soon  as  the  ice  left  their  rivers  the  Spaniards  pre- 
pared to  remove  to  a  gentler  climate. 

While  England  had  a  paper  claim,  or  after- 
wards pretended  that  she  had  because  of  Cabot's 
discovery  of  the  eastern  coast  of  the  United 
States  in  1496,  the  English  sovereigns  made  no 
attempt  to  take  possession  of  the  continent  on  the 
Atlantic  side  before  the  enterprise  of  Raleigh. 
On  the  Pacific  side  Drake  had  planted  a  cross 
and  taken  possession  of  northern  California  in 
the  name  of  Queen  Elizabeth  as  early  as  1579. 
But  meanwhile,  in  the  interior,  the  Mexican 
Viceroys  had  pushed  up  as  far  as  Santa  Fe. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Frenchmen  had  established  fishing  settle- 
ments which  outlived  the  winters,  in  the  regions 
which  surround  what  we  now  call  by  the  name 
which  they  gave  them,  Mount  Desert  and 
Frenchmen's  Bay.  But  Mrs.  Wallington  can 
give  us  no  account  of  the  ruins  of  their  churches, 
for  we  do  not  even  know  where  they  were.  In 
1602  the  Earl  of  Southampton  sent  the  Concord 
along  the  New  England  shore,  and  for  a  few 
(weeks  her  captain,  Gosnold,  thought  he  had  es- 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

tablished  a  settlement  on  Cuttyhunk  Island,  at 
the  opening  of  Buzzard's  Bay,  in  Massachusetts. 
But  it  was  but  a  short-lived  colony.  Doubtless 
there  were  Sunday  services  there,  but  there  was 
no  church,  and  with  early  autumn  the  colonists, 
who  had  quarrelled  among  themselves .  returned 
to  England. 

In  the  year  1607,  under  a  charter  of  King 
James  the  First,  what  is  known  as  the  Popham 
Colony  was  established  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Kennebec  River.  Worship  was  maintained  there 
for  the  few  months  of  its  existence.  But  no  man 
knows  where  was  the  altar  which  was  established 
for  so  short  a  time. 

With  the  arrival  of  Captains  Newport  and 
Smith  in  the  James  River  and  the  establishment 
of  Jamestown,  which  we  are  celebrating  in  this 
year  1907,  begins  the  history  of  Christian  wor- 
ship conducted  regularly  by  Englishmen  for 
three  centuries. 

With  the  varied  history  of  the  Spanish  foun- 
dations, of  the  arrival  of  French  Huguenots  in 
Carolina  and  in  Florida,  then  the  settlements  at 
Roanoke  Island  and  Jamestown,  afterwards  the 
establishments  of  the  Dutch  in  Manhattan,  with 
the  subsequent  arrival  of  the  Puritans  in  New 
England,  of  the  Swedes  in  the  Delaware,  of 
Penn  on  the  west  bank  of  that  river,  with  the 
settlements  of  French  pioneers  in  Detroit  and 
Vincennes,  and  with  their  later  establishments  in 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

Louisiana,  with  Oglethorpe's  colony  in  Georgia, 
the  history  of  organised  Christianity  in  the 
United  States  goes  forward  until  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Since  that  time,  emigrants 
have  arrived  here  from  almost  every  climate,  of 
all  faiths  and  of  none.  The  Russian  Doukho- 
bor,  the  Congo  negro,  the  coolie  from  China,  the 
Nestorian  from  Mesopotamia,  with  a  hundred 
others,  bring  their  varied  contributions  to  the 
religion  of  America. 

Antoine  Las  Casas,  a  soldier  in  the  marine 
service  of  Spain,  accompanied  Columbus  in  the 
great  voyage  which  has  given  such  distinction  to 
the  year  1492.  His  son  Bartholomew,  who  won 
the  great  distinction  of  being  the  first  Christian 
missionary  who  devoted  himself  to  the  service 
of  the  Master  in  America,  was  completing  his 
studies  at  the  University  of  Salamanca.  In  1498, 
at  the  age  of  twenty- four,  he  went  to  the  West 
Indies  with  his  father  under  Columbus.  He  re- 
turned to  Cadiz  in  1500.  In  1502  he  sailed  for 
the  second  time  with  Columbus  for  San  Do- 
mingo. In  1510  he  was  ordained  priest  by  the 
first  bishop  of  Hispaniola,  and  he  said  his  virgin 
mass  in  the  capital  city. 

The  first  Dominican  monks  under  their  bishop, 
Cordova,  reached  that  island  in  the  same  year. 
"  We  shall  find,"  says  Dr.  Ellis,  "  that  the  Do- 
minicans were  from  the  first  and  always  firm 
friends,  approvers,  and  helpers  of  Las  Casas  in 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

the  hard  conflict  for  asserting  the  rights  of  hu- 
manity for  the  outraged  natives."  And  it  is,  as 
Dr.  Ellis  says,  "  One  of  the  strange  phenomena 
in  history  that  the  founders  and  prime  agents  of 
the  Inquisition  in  Europe  should  be  the  cham- 
pions of  the  heathen  in  the  new  world." 

In  1561  the  King  of  Spain  determined  that 
no  further  attempt  should  be  made  to  colonise 
the  continent  north  of  Cuba,  either  in  the  Gulf  or 
at  St.  Helena.  But  the  very  next  year  a  colony 
of  French  Huguenots  founded  Charles  Fort  un- 
der Ribault,  and  for  four  years  that  colony 
maintained  itself.  In  1565,  however,  the  Span- 
ish commander  Menendez  resented  this  inter- 
ference, attacked  the  French  fort,  and  stormed 
it.  In  1565  the  Frenchman  de  Gourgues  re- 
sented and  revenged  this  success  by  an  invasion  in 
which  he  destroyed  the  little  post  and  hanged  his 
prisoners,  "  not  as  to  Spaniards,"  he  said,  "  but 
as  to  traitors,  robbers  and  murderers."  But  in 
the  next  year  Menendez  renewed  the  colony 
which  maintained  itself  until  the  village  was  de- 
stroyed by  Drake.  It  was  rebuilt,  however,  and 
dates  from  1572,  as  the  oldest  of  American  cities 
on  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

The  careful  reader  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States  will  learn  from  Mr.  Fiske's  admirable  ac- 
count of  the  early  history  of  Virginia  how  the 
establishment  of  English  settlers  in  the  regions 
of  Virginia  was  due  to  the  religious  as  well  as 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

to  the  political  determination  of  Raleigh  and  his 
English  successors.  The  hatred  of  Spain  to 
which  their  generation  of  Englishmen  was  bred 
became  a  matter  of  religion.  The  young  noble- 
men and  gentlemen  of  England  who  went  cor- 
dially into  the  affairs  of  American  colonisation 
worked  under  impulses  not  unlike  those  which 
stimulated  the  young  students  of  Williams  Col- 
lege, when  they  highly  determined  to  consecrate 
their  lives  to  the  conversion  of  the  heathen. 

One  of  the  last  words  addressed  by  John 
Robinson,  the  minister  of  the  Plymouth  Colony, 
expressed  his  interest  in  the  work  of  Christian 
Missions.  "  I  wish  you  had  converted  some  of 
them  before  you  had  slain  any."  With  the  ar- 
rival of  John  Eliot,  a  young  Puritan  preacher 
from  England,  a  definite  and  well-organised 
missionary  work  for  such  conversion  began.  A 
society  was  formed  of  religious  men  in  England, 
to  raise  money  and  to  send  out  men  to  America. 
It  still  exists  in  London.  It  is  not  fair  to  say 
that  it  was  unsuccessful.  And  between  that  time 
and  this,  the  history  of  all  the  American  States 
gives  us  details  of  the  work  of  consecrated  men 
and  women  who  have  addressed  themselves  spe- 
cifically to  this  Christian  duty.  Eliot  himself, 
was  as  is  now  well  known,  an  accurate  student  of 
language.  He  and  his  pupils  translated  the 
whole  English  Bible  into  the  language  of  the 
Massachusetts  Indians,  and  the  English  society 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

paid  the  expenses  of  printing  and  publishing 
it.* 

The  language  of  the  Massachusetts  chosen 
for  this  translation  belongs  to  the  language  of 
the  Algonquin  Indians,  the  branch  of  their  race 
most  widely  dispersed  in  North  America.  The 
Algonquin  language  was  spoken  by  all  the  In- 
dians of  New  England,  by  those  in  Long  Island 
and  on  the  seaboard  so  far  south  as  North  Caro- 
lina. An  Indian  from  Massachusetts  Bay  would 
have  understood  Powhatan  or  Pocahontas,  or  the 
Delaware  Indians,  with  whom  William  Penn 
dealt,  as  well  as  a  Spaniard  understands  an  Ital- 
ian to-day.  And  at  this  hour  an  educated  gen- 
tleman of  the  Ojibwa  tribe,  close  by  Duluth,  can 
entertain  himself  and  his  children  by  spelling  out 
the  words  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  not  un- 
familiar to  them,  as  they  find  them  in  Eliot's 
Bible. 

As  the  European  nations  began  to  know  more 
and  more  of  the  Atlantic  border  of  America  the 
missionary  spirit  showed  itself  in  the  effort  of 
hundreds  of  their  enthusiasts  to  write  on  the 
white  paper  which  they  found  in  a  new  land. 

At  the  moment  when  persecution  in  Austria 
distressed  the  Moravian  brethren  of  Count  Zin- 
zendorf ,  General  Oglethorpe  and  the  other  foun- 
ders of  Georgia  were  able  to  offer  them  "  free- 

*  A  full  and  accurate  dictionary  of  this  important  book  by  the 
late  J.  Hammond  Trumbull  has  recently  been  published. 


INTRODUCTION  xix 

dom  to  worship  God  "  in  the  beautiful  regions 
which  they  had  taken  in  hand.  The  establish- 
ment of  Bethlehem,  in  the  northern  part  of 
Pennsylvania,  by  a  Moravian  Colony  is  another 
of  the  enterprises,  romantic  from  end  to  end, 
which  were  undertaken  by  the  Moravian  fra- 
ternity. Before  the  century  was  over  many  re- 
ligious establishments,  some  now  forgotten,  some 
prosperous  under  the  free  worship  of  American 
life,  established  themselves  in  one  and  another 
region  under  the  auspices  of  Christian  adven- 
turers. 

It  would  be  a  very  little  thing  to  invite  the 
reader  to  recall  a  few  facts  of  external  history  in 
the  organisation  of  the  different  churches  which 
have  formed  themselves  in  the  different  origins 
of  America.  Mrs.  Wallington  has  not  satisfied 
herself  with  any  such  showman's  exhibits  of  the 
slides  in  the  box  of  his  camera.  The  history  of 
these  churches  takes  us  back — I  may  say  of 
course — to  the  great  central  duties  to  which  their 
leaders  have  addressed  themselves  in  building  up 
the  country.  It  is  the  history  of  the  power  of 
the  moral  forces.  Such  is  the  phrase  of  people 
who  like  to  play  with  scholastic  words.  It  is  the 
history  which  shows  that  the  Power  which  makes 
for  righteousness  is  the  supreme  Power,  which 
makes  indeed  a  new  revelation  of  itself  with  the 
passage  of  every  century.  Nowhere  is  that  les- 
son more  easily  read  than  it  can  be  read  in  the 


xx  INTRODUCTION 

history  of  this  nation,  where,  as  I  said,  the  good 
God  had  white  paper  to  write  upon. 

And  it  will  he  observed  that  the  advance  of 
the  country  from  century  to  century  has  not  been 
dependent,  no,  not  in  one  single  step,  on  the  ex- 
ternal forms  or  methods  of  these  churches. 
Forms  and  methods  have  their  place,  so  many 
grains  of  sand  torn  up  from  one  ocean-beaten 
floor  to  be  flung  upon  another.  But  the  good 
God  does  not  reveal  Himself  in  the  form;  His 
kingdom  comes  as  He  speaks  in  the  still,  small 
voice  which  was  not  in  tempest,  in  thunders,  in 
lightnings,  or  in  earthquakes. 

Catholic,  Huguenot,  Lutheran,  Calvinist, 
Englishman,  Scotchman,  Irishman,  German,  or 
Dutch, — whatever  these  settlers  called  them- 
selves, whatever  uniform  they  chose  to  wear, 
there  were  among  them  men  who  walked  with 
God, — or  tried  to.  They  loved  justice,  they 
loved  mercy,  and  they  walked  humbly  with  Him. 
If  they  were  tempted  by  merely  rhetorical  ex- 
pression to  make  clear  to  men  what  is  this  Walk 
with  God,  they  certainly  failed.  If  they  sup- 
posed that  the  Infinite  Life  could  be  revealed  by 
nominative  cases  and  by  verbs  in  any  of  the  forms 
of  grammar,  they  failed.  It  proved  that  lan- 
guage is  a  matter  of  things.  But  every  man  who 
accepted  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  suc- 
ceeded. It  is  the  fine  phrase  of  William  Brad- 
ford, which  says  of  the  men  who  landed  on 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

Plymouth  Rock,  that  they  "  agreed  to  walk  to- 
gether." They  did  not  prescribe  any  form  of 
worship,  they  did  not  attempt  any  hard  and  fast 
definition  in  words  of  the  Faith  and  Hope  and 
Love  which  are  eternal.  For  the  Infinite,  be- 
cause it  is  infinite,  cannot  be  defined.  But  they 
walked  together  and  they  walked  with  God.  So 
He  lent  them  His  own  omnipotence  for  their 
success. 

As  a  single  illustration  of  such  success  we  need 
not  be  afraid  to  cite  the  details  of  their  dealings 
with  the  native  tribes  whom  they  found  here. 
There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  exaggerated  mis- 
statement  as  to  the  relations  of  the  white  men 
and  the  red  men  with  each  other.  And  it  is  easy 
to  sneer  at  the  European  emigrant  as  driving 
very  hard  bargains  when  he  bought  principalities, 
perhaps,  for  a  few  red  coats  or  a  few  axes,  with 
a  few  beads  and  other  trinkets.  From  such 
sneers  there  springs  up  a  school  of  invective 
which  would  make  us  believe  that  the  American 
pioneers  were  more  savage  than  the  red  man 
whom  they  crushed,  and  that  the  children  of  na- 
ture were  cruelly  oppressed  by  men  who  sought 
simply  their  own  profit  or  credit.  Such  sneers 
have  undoubtedly  for  their  confirmation  legends 
which  are  true  of  the  exasperating  outrages  com- 
mitted by  frontier  traders  or  other  adventurers 
who  were  utterly  careless  of  human  life. 

But  it  is  not  true  in  any  single  instance  of  the 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

history  of  the  American  States  that  the  govern- 
ors or  leaders  of  those  States  have  had  any  policy 
of  extermination  or  any  wish  of  oppression. 
Such  leaders  had  come  here  intending  to  stay. 
Such  leaders  have  stayed,  and  because  they  have 
stayed,  for  better  for  worse,  the  United  States 
of  America  exists  to-day.  But  they  had  no 
reason  to  propose  the  destruction  of  the  native 
races,  nor  has  any  company  of  them  ever  at- 
tempted the  policy  of  destruction.  If  such  an 
alliance  as  King  Philip  formed  in  New  England 
proposed  arid  expected  to  drive  the  newly-landed 
colonists  into  the  sea  and  to  destroy  their  towns, 
those  colonists,  one  might  say  of  course,  had  to 
stand  on  their  defence  with  no  pretence  of 
gentleness  in  their  vigour.  If  Lancaster  were 
destroyed  by  the  Indians  in  Massachusetts  we 
are  not  to  wonder  if  some  Indian  fortress  were 
stormed  and  the  village  it  protected  was  burned. 
But  this  happened,  not  because  the  Massachu- 
setts colonists  meant  to  destroy  the  Indians. 
There  was  room  enough  for  white  men  and  for 
red  men,  and  it  is  not  fair  to  ascribe  events  which 
sprang  from  the  fortunes  of  war  to  a  precon- 
ceived purpose  of  extermination. 

No!  The  history  of  the  three  centuries  is  the 
history  on  the  part  of  the  leaders  of  the  whites 
of  attempts  for  the  improvement  and  the  civilisa- 
tion of  the  tribes  whom  they  found  here.  Grant 
that  they  seem  foolish  sometimes  as  we  look  back 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

upon  them,  but  the  men  who  planned  them  did 
not  think  they  were  foolish.  It  is  foolish  for  us 
now  to  pay  rations  or  pensions  which  encourage 
idleness  and  laziness  among  Indian  tribes,  but 
the  men  who  made  the  treaties  which  bind  us  to 
such  lavish  expenditure  did  not  think  that  they 
were  foolish,  and  did  not  make  them  with  the 
intent  of  debasing  the  men  with  whom  they  were 
dealing. 

And  to  sum  up  in  a  few  words  what  the  policy 
has  resulted  in  which  the  Governors  of  America 
have  pursued  with  frequent  changes,  but  with 
good  purposes,  it  ought  to  be  enough  to  say,  that 
according  to  the  best  authorities,  more  men  and 
women  of  the  native  tribes  are  living  within  our 
territory  now  than  ever  lived  here  before.  Their 
powers  for  war  and  mutual  slaughter  are  less, 
their  powers  and  skill  in  the  works  of  civilisation 
are  greater.  And  though  one  enterprise  and  an- 
other for  what  has  been  thought  to  be  their  eleva- 
tion and  improvement  have  wretchedly  failed, 
yet,  on  the  whole,  the  boy  or  girl  born  in  an  In- 
dian tribe  in  our  day  has  a  better  chance  for  the 
best  which  life  has  to  offer  than  such  a  boy  or  girl 
ever  had  before. 

And  to  speak  in  a  few  words  only,  I  shall  best 
introduce  Mrs.  Wallington's  curious  and  inter- 
esting book  to  the  Christian  reader  by  reminding 
him  that  although  many  outside  forms  of  re- 
ligion are  represented  here  the  great  success 


xxiv  INTRODUCTION 

which  makes  the  civilised  America  of  to-day  has 
sprung  from  the  practical  union  of  the  religious 
men  and  women  of  every  communion. 

For  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  with  every  aggres- 
sive enterprise  against  any  of  the  works  of  the 
devil  or  against  the  ignorance  of  a  world  which 
has  not  liked  "  to  retain  God  in  its  knowledge," 
you  find  this  central  wish, — to  walk  together  with 
other  children  of  God.  You  do  not  find  promi- 
nent the  expression  of  intellectual  opinion  or  a 
reference  to  the  history  of  the  past.  Whatever 
the  enterprise  of  reform  which  is  undertaken, 
whether  it  be  in  education,  in  temperance,  in 
bringing  God  to  men  and  men  to  God  more 
closely,  the  men  interested  have  wished  "to  go 
about  doing  good."  If  they  have  had  any  creed 
it  was  simply  that  they  would  proclaim  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left  hand  that  the  kingdom 
of  God  is  at  hand.  They  have  been  enthusiastic 
in  their  Master's  service.  But  they  remembered 
that  the  description  of  Him  given  by  His  apos- 
tles was  that  He  went  about  doing  good.  They 
remembered  that  His  promises  were  given  not  to 
the  men  who  cried  Lord,  Lord,  but  for  those 
who  remembered  to  do  the  things  of  which  He 
spoke. 

Mrs.  Wellington's  book  expresses  fitly  what 
we  must  hope  that  the  twentieth  century  will 
show  to  America, — namely,  that  the  religion  of 
the  twentieth  century  is  to  be  a  religion  of  action 


INTRODUCTION  xxv 

rather  than  of  historical  expression.  It  is  a  re- 
ligion of  man  working  with  God  and  God  work- 
ing with  man.  It  will  have  less  and  less  to  say 
about  "  I  believe  in  this,"  or  "  I  believe  in  that." 
It  will  have  more  and  more  of  that  spirit  in  which 
men  will  walk  together,  and  that  they  will  walk 
humbly  with  their  God. 

EDWARD  E.  HALE. 


HISTORIC   CHURCHES 
OF   AMERICA 


THE    OLD    SOUTH    CHURCH 

BOSTON,    MASSACHUSETTS 

MOST  famous  of  all  historic  churches  in 
our    country    is,     perhaps,    the    Old 
South    Meeting    House    in    Boston, 
within  whose  walls  in  colonial  and  Revolution- 
ary times  were  spoken  some  of  the  boldest  words 
of  patriotism,  and  from  whose  rostrum  went  up 
the  strongest  of  the  appeals  that  fanned  into 
flame    the    fire   that    drove   the    British    from 
America. 

From  the  very  founding  of  the  Massachusetts 
Colony  there  had  existed  a  close  union  between 
church  and  state;  none  could  be  freemen  except 
church  members  and  none  but  freemen  were 
entitled  to  the  ballot.  Since  the  number  of  non- 
church  members  increased  annually,  such  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  created  more  and  more  dissat- 
isfaction, and  as  early  as  1646,  twenty-six  years 
after  the  founding  of  the  Colony,  a  petition 
was  sent  to  the  General  Court  asking  a  removal 
of  this  religious  disability.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  glories  of  the  Old  South  Church  that  it 
originated  this  initial  struggle  to  separate 
church  and  state.  The  General  Court  de- 
clined to  grant  the  petition  of  the  non-church 


4  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

members,  and  finally  an  official  council,  which 
met  in  Boston  in  June,  1657,  declared  that  all 
baptised  persons  were  entitled  to  the  same  privi- 
leges at  the  ballot-box  as  church  members.  In 
1662  a  General  Synod  was  convened  to  discuss 
the  matter,  at  which  the  members  failed  to  agree, 
but  recommended  the  continuance  of  the  exist- 
ing conditions.  The  First  Church  of  Boston, 
an  earlier  organisation,  accepted  this  recom- 
mendation, but  twenty-nine  of  its  members, 
including  the  most  respectable  among  the  resi- 
dents of  the  city,  seceded  and  formed  a  sepa- 
rate church  organisation.  In  accordance  with 
the  prevailing  custom,  it  was  necessary  to  gain 
the  consent  of  the  church  to  such  secession* 
which,  however,  the  church  denied.  Nothing 
daunted,  the  secessionists  asked  permission  of 
the  Governor  of  the  State  to  erect  a  place  of 
worship,  and,  failing  to  obtain  his  permission, 
they  next  petitioned  the  selectmen  of  Boston, 
who  granted  their  request.  They  accordingly 
erected  a  meeting  house  of  cedar,  two  stories 
in  height,  with  a  steeple,  and  modest  interior, 
with  the  conventional  high-backed  square  pews 
and  lofty  pulpit  of  olden  church  times.  Until 
October  16,  1674,  the  wives,  mothers  and  daugh- 
ters of  the  twenty-nine  male  members  still  wor- 
shipped with  the  First  Church,  being  forbidden 
by  that  organisation  to  sever  their  connection 
with  it.  It  was  not  until  the  General  Council 


OF    AMERICA  5 

decided  that  whom  God  had  joined  they  had  no 
right  to  put  asunder  that  the  wives  and  mothers 
rejoined  their  families.  In  this  original  church 
Judge  Sewall  made  public  confession  and 
repentance  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the  no- 
torious Salem  witchcraft  delusion.  Another 
interesting  circumstance  is  that  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  baptised  there  in  1706. 

On  March  3,  1729,  the  last  service  was  held 
in  this  little  structure,  which  was  then  demol- 
ished, to  be  replaced  during  the  ensuing  year 
by  a  larger  and  more  substantial  edifice.  The 
walls  of  the  new  church  were  of  brick,  laid  in  the 
style  known  as  Flemish  bond.  It  was  plain 
enough  in  appearance  on  the  exterior,  but  its 
steeple  rose  to  the  height  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  feet.  Inside,  the  pulpit  was  of  the  huge 
"  tub  "  shape,  raised  aloft  on  a  pillared  base, 
while  above  it  the  sounding-board  was  sus- 
pended. The  long  pews  directly  in  front  of 
the  pulpit  were  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  aged, 
who  might  be  hard  of  hearing.  The  elders  occu- 
pied seats  raised  above  the  level  of  the  rest  of 
the  pews,  and  directly  under  them  sat  the 
deacons. 

In  1740  came  the  "  Great  Awakening,"  under 
the  noted  English  evangelist,  George  Whitefield, 
when  more  than  one  hundred  converts  were 
added  to  the  membership  of  the  Old  South 
Church. 


6  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

In  1745,  during  the  French  and  Indian  War, 
after  the  English  had  captured  Louisburg,  the 
French  under  Admiral  D'Anville  attempted  to 
retaliate  by  sending  forty  ships  with  the  avowed 
intention  of  destroying  Boston.  Realising  how 
greatly  their  little  city  was  at  the  mercy  of  such 
an  enemy,  the  Bostonians  called  a  mass  meeting 
for  prayer  and  fasting  in  the  Old  South  Church, 
and  while  they  were  thus  engaged,  news  was 
brought  of  the  utter  destruction  of  the  fleet  by 
a  storm  at  sea.  This  was  the  first  mass  meeting 
in  the  Old  South  Church  of  which  there  is  any 
record,  but  from  this  time  on  meetings  grew 
in  frequency  as  the  acts  of  British  oppression 
became  more  violent.  When  Faneuil  Hall  over- 
flowed, the  surplus  of  the  crowd  invariably  ad- 
journed to  the  South  Church,  and  on  June  14, 
1768,  the  largest  mass  meeting  that  Boston  had 
yet  seen  assembled  there,  Faneuil  Hall  being  too 
small  to  accommodate  it.  From  that  meeting 
a  petition  was  sent  to  the  Governor,  through  a 
committee  of  which  John  Hancock  was  chair- 
man, asking  that  the  British  frigate  which  was 
obstructing  navigation  in  Boston  Harbour  be 
removed.  It  was  after  another  meeting  held 
in  the  Old  South,  December  14,  1773,  that  many 
of  the  first  citizens  of  Boston  dressed  themselves 
up  as  Indians  and  took  part  in  the  famous  tea- 
party  in  Boston  Harbour. 

During  the  winter  of  1774-5,  while  the  British 


OF   AMERICA  7 

occupied  Boston,  the  Old  South  Church  was 
used  as  a  riding  school  for  Burgoyne's  cavalry 
— the  Queen's  Light  Dragoons.  Pews,  gallery 
and  pulpit  were  consumed  by  the  camp  fires  of 
the  British,  while  one  of  the  old  pews  with  its 
silk  hangings  was  converted  into  a  pig-sty. 

In  March,  1776,  when  Boston  was  again  in 
the  hands  of  the  patriots,  the  South  Church  was 
repaired  and  occupied  once  more  for  its  proper 
purposes.  The  Church  gets  its  name  of  "  Old 
South  "  from  the  fact  that  in  1817  a  new  church 
was  built  near  the  old  structure  and  styled  the 
"  New  South  Church." 

In  the  great  fire  in  Boston  in  1872  when  the 
postoffice  was  destroyed,  the  government  occu- 
pied the  Old  South  temporarily,  and  from  that 
time  on  no  regular  services  have  been  held  in  the 
Church.  In  1877  the  women  of  Boston  pur- 
chased the  building  to  preserve  it  as  a  memorial, 
appointing  the  Council  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  its  custodian. 


8  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


JAMESTOWN 

THE  FIRST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA 

AOUND  no  landmark  in  our  nation's  his- 
tory cluster  feelings   of  deeper  rever- 
ence than  those  surrounding  the  ruins 
of  the  old  Episcopal  Church  at  Jamestown,  Vir- 
ginia.    Though   the   elements   of   nature   have 
apparently  combined  to  blot  the  old  church  out 
entirely,  and,  indeed,  have  left  nothing  but  the 
ruined  tower,  this  still  remains,  a  monument  to 
the  religious  feeling  of  the  first  English  colonists 
in  North  America. 

The  events  that  occurred  during  the  first  few 
days  following  the  landing  of  the  colonists  from 
the  good  ship  Susan  Constant,  at  Jamestown, 
Virginia,  May  13,  1607,  are  of  deep  interest. 
Immediately  upon  disembarking  they  elected  a 
president,  under  whose  orders  they  built  a  fort 
with  the  timber  which  they  had  brought  with 
them  from  England.  While  the  unloading  was 
in  progress  a  board  was  carried  ashore  and  nailed 
between  two  trees  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a 
reading  desk  for  divine  service.  Among  the 
branches  of  the  trees  overhead  canvas  was 
spread,  and  under  this  rude  shelter  the  first  Prot- 


Ruins  at  Jamestown,  Virginia 


OF   AMERICA  9 

estant  service  in  America  was  held.  The  offici- 
ating clergyman  was  the  Reverend  Robert  Hunt, 
and  the  service  was  that  of  the  Established 
Church  of  England.  Until  homes  were  erected 
for  the  colonists  and  better  shelter  provided, 
this  rude  temple  with  its  canvas  roof  and  seats 
of  unsawn  timber  served  as  a  place  to  worship 
God,  and  here  divine  service  was  held  twice  on 
each  Sabbath  day. 

A  few  days  after  the  debarkation  of  the  colo- 
nists Captain  John  Smith  set  out  on  a  voyage 
of  discovery,  and  until  his  return  no  attempt 
seems  to  have  been  made  to  provide  a  more  suit- 
able church  building.  After  his  return  from  the 
exploration  of  the  James  River,  with  that  strenu- 
ousness  that  marked  all  his  procedures,  Captain 
Smith  undertook  the  erection  of  a  structure  in 
which  the  colonists  might  worship  God  with 
greater  comfort  in  stormy  weather.  He  de- 
scribed this  church  as  a  "homely  thing,  like  a 
barn  set  on  crutches  and  covered  with  rafts, 
sedge  and  earth,  as  were  also  the  walls."  But 
the  dwelling  houses  were  similarly  constructed, 
and  with  even  greater  rudeness.  In  this  new 
"  house  of  God  "  sermon  and  prayer  were  heard 
daily,  both  morning  and  evening,  two  services 
on  each  Sabbath,  and  communion  every  three 
months,  until  the  death  of  the  Reverend  Robert 
Hunt. 

One  special  injunction  had  been  laid  by  the 


10  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

London  company  upon  Captain  Smith,  to  make 
a  rigid  exploration  of  every  stream  he  found 
that  emptied  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  with  the 
hope  that  a  short  route  would  be  discovered  to 
the  Pacific.  Soon  after  the  erection  of  the 
"  church  upon  stilts  "  he  undertook  another  voy- 
age of  discovery,  and  during  this  absence  the 
little  church  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Upon  his 
return  Captain  Smith  was  elected  President  of 
the  little  colony,  and  employing  the  authority 
his  new  position  gave  him  he  commanded  that 
the  work  of  building  a  domicile  for  himself, 
which  the  colonists  had  planned  and  begun  dur- 
ing his  absence,  he  discontinued  until  a  new 
church  had  been  erected.  Under  his  personal 
supervision  this  new  church  was  nearing  comple- 
tion when  the  wounds  that  he  had  received  in  a 
conflict  with  the  Indians  compelled  him  to  sail 
to  England  for  surgical  treatment. 

With  the  departure  of  Captain  Smith  the 
more  lawless  among  the  colonists,  whom  his  in- 
trepid spirit  had  so  far  kept  in  check,  broke  loose 
in  unbridled  rioting.  The  Indians,  too,  no 
longer  coerced  by  his  presence,  and  daily  in- 
flamed by  the  treatment  accorded  them,  became 
hostile  in  their  attitude.  Plantations  were  laid 
waste,  and  provisions  became  so  exhausted  that 
famine  stared  the  colonists  in  the  face.  Wholly 
disheartened,  they  embarked  for  England,  but 
when  they  neared  the  mouth  of  the  James  River 


OF   AMERICA  11 

they  met  Lord  Delaware,  bringing  provisions 
and  reinforcements  from  England.  Returning 
to  the  former  settlement,  under  the  wise  rule  of 
Lord  Delaware  they  soon  conquered  the  Indians 
and  held  them  in  check,  while  the  colony  pros- 
pered under  strict  government.  The  little  church 
that  Captain  Smith  had  begun  was  finished,  and 
with  wise  forethought  Lord  Delaware  employed 
in  its  fitting  and  furnishings  the  choicest  woods 
that  the  Virginia  forests  afforded.  The  com- 
munion table  and  altar  were  constructed  of  black 
walnut,  while  the  shutters,  the  pews  and  the  pul- 
pit were  made  of  cedar;  the  baptismal  font  was 
"hewn  hollow  like  a  canoe."  Services  were 
again  instituted,  being  conducted  by  the  Rever- 
end Mr.  Buckle,  who  had  been  sent  from  Eng- 
land to  succeed  Mr.  Hunt.  Daily  service  was 
begun,  and  daily  the  little  altar  was  decorated 
with  the  native  wild  flowers  of  Virginia.  The 
Governor,  Lord  Delaware,  never  failed  in  his 
attendance,  and  invariably  appeared  in  the  full 
dignity  of  velvet  and  lace,  with  a  bodyguard 
clad  in  rich  attire  and  scarlet  cloaks. 

A  full-toned  bell,  brought  from  England,  was 
hung  in  the  belfry,  and  not  only  served  to  call 
the  colonists  to  worship,  but  gave  notice  to  the 
little  industrial  army  when  to  begin  and  when 
to  leave  off  work  for  the  day. 

In  that  little  church,  which  owed  its  existence 
to  Captain  John  Smith,  the  Indian  maiden,  Po- 


12  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

cahontas,  was  baptised  in  the  Christian  faith  in 
April,  1614,  and  following  the  ceremony  her 
marriage  took  place  with  the  colonist,  John 
Rolfe,  whose  wife  had  succumbed  to  the  hard- 
ships of  the  rude  life  in  the  colony.  The  mar- 
riage was  celebrated  in  the  presence  of  an  amica- 
ble company  of  Indians  and  Englishmen.  One 
could  wish  that  there  were  more  details  concern- 
ing this  first  marriage  contracted  between  an 
Englishman  and  a  native-born  princess  of 
America.  How  much  weight  this  alliance  may 
have  had  with  the  Indians  it  would  be  difficult 
to  estimate,  but  at  least  the  Virginia  settlers 
gained  eight  years  of  freedom  from  Indian 
attacks. 

In  1639  a  solid  brick  church  succeeded  the 
little  wooden  structure,  the  dimensions  of  the 
new  edifice  being  fifty-six  by  twenty-eight  feet. 
In  front  of  the  new  church  building  and  joined 
to  it,  forming  the  front  entrance,  was  built  a 
square  tower,  reaching  from  the  ground  to  the 
full  height  of  the  edifice.  By  the  time  this  later 
building  was  completed  the  Virginia  colonists 
had  obtained  greater  security  from  Indian  mo- 
lestation. In  the  little  adjoining  churchyard 
were  successively  buried  the  Governors  of  Vir- 
ginia who  died  in  office,  as  well  as  the  rectors 
who  in  turn  served  the  little  parish. 

In  1676  Nathaniel  Bacon  instigated  the  most 
widespread  rebellion  with  which  Virginia  had 


OF   AMERICA  13 

yet  had  to  cope.  Bacon  was  a  man  bred  to  the 
law,  and  by  reason  of  his  talents  as  well  as  by  his 
great  ambition  had  easily  gained  a  position  in 
the  Virginia  Council,  not  to  mention  attaining 
the  rank  of  Colonel  in  the  Virginia  militia.  Re- 
belling against  the  authority  of  Governor  Berke- 
ley, he  advanced  toward  Jamestown,  and  civil 
war — the  first  in  America — resulted.  In  retali- 
ation for  the  dishonour  he  conceived  was  planned 
against  him  by  the  act  of  Governor  Berkeley 
in  placing  a  price  upon  his  head,  Bacon  applied 
the  torch  to  Jamestown,  reducing  it  to  ashes. 
Nothing  remained  standing  but  the  ruins  of  the 
little  church  tower  and  a  few  solitary,  blackened 
chimneys. 

No  later  attempt  was  made  to  erect  a  church 
building  upon  this  site,  and  even  to-day  the  ruins 
of  the  tower  are  picturesque  in  their  desolation. 
The  wash  of  the  tide  has  gradually  removed  the 
sand  that  joined  "  Sandy  Beach,"  the  site  of  the 
edifice,  with  the  mainland,  and  the  spot  where 
Jamestown  once  stood  is  an  island  which  is  grad- 
ually being  worn  away.  Unless  sufficient  pre- 
cautionary measures  are  taken,  this  first  and 
most  ancient  landmark  of  the  Protestant  Church 
in  America  will  disappear. 


14  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   PETER'S 

WHITEHOUSE,    VIRGINIA 

THE  character  of  the  early  settlers  of  Vir- 
ginia revealed  itself  in  their  houses  of 
worship,  which  differed  materially  from 
the  severely  plain  meeting-houses  built  by  the 
Puritans  in  New  England.  The  churches 
erected  by  the  residents  of  the  Old  Dominion 
suggested  luxury  and  comfort,  though  money 
was  as  scarce  among  them  as  with  the  settlers 
further  north.  Among  the  Virginians  tobacco 
served  as  an  equivalent  of  money,  and  when  the 
English  settlers  of  New  Kent  County  decided 
to  build  a  house  of  worship  at  Whitehouse,  in 
1703,  they  paid  for  its  erection  by  contributions 
of  the  fragrant  weed. 

The  church  of  St.  Peter's  was  built  in  the 
form  of  a  parallelogram.  At  one  end  rose  a 
tower,  square  in  shape  and  capped  with  a  steeple, 
with  a  weather  vane  above,  made  in  representa- 
tion of  the  keys  of  St.  Peter.  In  architectural 
style  the  church  repeated  the  old  English  parish 
churches,  and  doubtless  recalled  to  the  minds  of 
its  earlier  communicants  the  green  fields  and 
well-trimmed  hedges  of  "merrie  England." 


OF   AMERICA  15 

Within  the  building  the  pulpit  was  raised  high 
above  the  heads  of  the  congregation;  above  it 
hung  the  ever-present  sounding-board  and  upon 
a  bracket  beside  it  stood  the  inevitable  hourglass. 
The  communicants  occupied  family  pews,  a 
practice  which  differed  from  that  of  many 
churches  further  north,  in  which  the  men  sat  on 
one  side  of  the  house  of  worship  and  the  women 
upon  the  other.  In  St.  Peter's  the  individual 
pews  were  of  liberal  dimensions  and  were  pro- 
vided with  the  high  backs  in  vogue  at  that  time. 

The  communicants  came  to  church  from  many 
miles  around,  the  family  coaches  bringing  the 
elders,  while  the  younger  members  rode  on  horse- 
back. A  gallery  was  provided  for  the  negro 
slaves,  who  waited  at  the  door  in  winter,  each 
with  a  foot-stove  full  of  hot  embers  to  keep 
warm  the  extremities  of  his  master  and  mistress. 
Upon  the  arrival  of  the  owners  the  slaves  fol- 
lowed them  to  their  respective  pews,  and  only 
after  a  careful  placing  of  the  foot-stoves  did  the 
negroes  think  of  seeking  their  own  seats  in  the 
gallery. 

After  service  the  good  Virginians,  always 
a  social  people,  collected  in  groups  and  passed 
the  time  in  friendly  converse,  while  the  negro 
servants  brought  the  riding  horses  and  the 
coaches  round  to  the  door. 

Of  such  importance  was  St.  Peter's  Church, 
not  only  spiritually,  but  socially  as  well,  that  it 


16  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

was  selected  as  the  scene  of  one  of  the  historical 
events  of  Virginia — Hie  marriage  in  1759  of 
George  Washington  and  Mrs.  Martha  Custis. 
One  can  picture  to  one's  self  the  pomp  of  such 
a  marriage,  what  with  the  wealth  of  the  bride 
and  the  high  social  standing  of  each  of  the  con- 
tracting parties. 

With  such  loving  care  and  with  so  deep  rev- 
erence has  St.  Peter's  Church  been  preserved 
that  even  the  tides  of  war  have  left  no  marks 
upon  it;  it  still  stands,  mellow  with  past  glory 
and  a  quaint  suggestion  of  antiquity,  and  regu- 
larly the  communicants  of  the  parish  gather  for 
services  in  it  each  Sabbath. 


OF   AMERICA  17 


THE   OLD    NORTH   CHURCH 

PORTSMOUTH,    NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

CONSIDERING  the  simple  materials  at 
the  command  of  its  builders  in  1657  one 
must  admit  the  first  church  building 
erected  in  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  to  have 
been  a  most  substantial  structure.  It  was,  at  any 
rate,  though  crude  and  simple  in  construction 
and  comfortless  in  its  interior,  enough  to  answer 
the  requirements  of  the  congregation  for  fifty 
years,  before  they  decided  to  erect  a  more  pre- 
tentious house  of  worship.  This  they  did  in 
1708,  choosing  the  site  upon  another  corner  of 
the  church  glebe. 

In  order  to  provide  protection  from  Indian 
attacks,  the  original  little  meeting-house  had 
been  placed  on  the  hill  only  a  few  rods  from  the 
south  milldam.  It  boasted  a  glebe  of  some  fifty 
acres,  but  had  no  regular  minister,  relying  wholly 
on  the  services  of  travelling  missionaries.  The 
first  ordained  minister,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Moody, 
entered  upon  his  labours  in  1671,  and  in  addi- 
tion to  regular  services  on  the  Sabbath,  weekly 
meetings  were  held  at  the  houses  of  the  members 
of  the  church. 


18  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

The  little  church  was  the  scene  of  all  town 
meetings,  and  even  its  ledger  was  called  into 
requisition  to  record  the  number  of  wolves'  heads 
that  were  brought  in  for  bounty.  These  heads 
were  nailed  on  the  meeting-house  door  as  sub- 
stantial evidence  that  the  claimant  was  entitled 
to  his  reward. 

The  Governor  of  the  Colony,  who  was  a 
staunch  Episcopalian,  brought  to  bear  against 
the  Congregational  minister  the  provisions  of 
the  Act  of  Conformity  of  King  Charles  II. 
Governor  Cranfield  himself  attended  service  in 
the  Old  North  Church,  as  it  came  to  be  called, 
and  personally  investigated  the  matter,  with  the 
result  that  the  minister  was  sent  to  jail  in  1683, 
only  to  be  released  thirteen  weeks  later  upon  his 
agreeing  to  leave  the  Colony.  The  blow  that 
thus  fell  upon  the  Reverend  Mr.  Moody  was  felt 
most  keenly  by  every  member  of  the  little  con- 
gregation. He  went  to  Boston  to  serve  one  of 
the  more  enterprising  churches  there  for  ten 
years,  but  his  heart  remained  with  the  little  flock 
at  Portsmouth,  to  whom  he  returned,  finally,  and 
whom  he  served  for  four  years  more  until  his 
death. 

From  the  time  of  the  building  of  the  new 
church  in  1708  the  congregation  desired  a  clock 
and  bell  for  their  meeting-house,  though  not  till 
1749  were  they  able  to  accomplish  their  desire. 
On  March  25  the  new  clock  was  set  up  in  the 


The  Old  North  Church,  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire 


OF   AMERICA  19 

steeple,  and  its  ability  to  strike  the  hours  proved 
most  gratifying  to  all  the  residents  of  Ports- 
mouth village.  A  bell,  too,  had  been  procured 
and  hung  in  the  belfry. 

In  1835  a  still  more  modern  house  of  worship 
was  erected,  to  which  the  bell,  the  clock,  and  most 
of  the  furnishings  of  the  old  meeting-house  were 
duly  transferred.  The  church  was  thoroughly 
renovated  in  1855,  the  alterations  being  so  ex- 
tensive as  to  be  practically  a  rebuilding.  The 
following  year  the  parish  purchased  a  modern 
clock  and  sent  the  old  bell  to  England  to  be  re- 
cast, to  the  great  regret  of  the  congregation  ever 
since,  as  the  vessel,  with  all  its  cargo,  was  lost 
at  sea. 

The  Old  North  Church  has  had  a  happy  his- 
tory, escaping  even  from  the  turmoil  and  depre- 
dation that  befel  other  houses  of  God  during 
the  turbulent  days  of  the  Revolution.  Few 
churches  in  America  show  in  their  annals  a 
greater  spirit  of  harmony  among  their  members. 
No  schisms  have  arisen,  and  there  has  been  a 
steady  growth  in  the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  undis- 
turbed by  rivalries  and  dissensions. 


20  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


w 


TRINITY   CHURCH 

WILMINGTOTST,    DELAWARE 

'HEN  William  Penn  came  to  Amer- 
ica he  found  colonies  of  Swedes 
who,  for  half  a  century,  had  tilled 
the  soil  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  as  well 
as  of  the  Western  shores  of  New  Jersey.  These 
Swedish  colonists  were  assisted  in  their  emigra- 
tion by  William  Uselin,  who  obtained  from  the 
King  of  Sweden  permission  to  found  colonies 
along  the  shores  of  the  Delaware  River.  The 
land  was  purchased  from  the  Indians  and  the 
first  Swedish  colony  planted  at  the  mouth  of 
Christina  Creek  in  1627.  Here  they  erected  a 
small  church  to  which  all  the  settlers  in  the  Swed- 
ish colonies  at  Lewistown  and  Tinicum  came 
for  service  including  their  governor,  John 
Prinz,  who  had  built  for  himself  a  pretentious 
mansion  which  he  named  "Prinz  Hall."  The 
pew  the  governor  occupied  in  the  little  church 
was  decorated  to  suit  the  pomp  of  the  guberna- 
torial position.  The  settlers  named  their  cluster 
of  colonies  "  New  Sweden,"  still  maintaining 
allegiance  to  the  Old  World  government. 


OF   AMERICA  21 

The  simple  structure  erected  by  the  Swedes 
as  a  house  for  divine  worship  served  their  needs 
until  1699,  when  the  building  showed  unmis- 
takable signs  of  decay,  and  amid  the  tears  of 
many  of  the  communicants  service  was  held  in  it 
for  the  last  time. 

One  year  earlier,  John  Statcop,  one  of  the 
church  wardens  in  the  Colony,  had  given  the 
church  a  tract  of  land  for  a  church  site  and  a 
glebe.  On  May  28,  1698,  the  erection  of  the 
new  church  was  begun,  and  by  Trinity  Sunday, 
1699,  it  was  completed.  Upon  this  same  Trin- 
ity Sunday  the  church  was  dedicated.  The  fact 
that  the  building  cost  some  eight  hundred  pounds 
is  sufficient  evidence  that  these  humble  settlers 
had  prospered  materially  since  their  settlements 
upon  American  soil. 

The  dimensions  of  the  new  church,  which  was 
built  of  granite,  were  sixty  by  thirty  feet,  and 
the  building  rose  to  a  height  of  twenty  feet  in 
all.  In  order  to  render  it  durable  the  stone  walls 
were  made  six  feet  thick  at  the  foundation  and 
three  feet  at  the  level  of  the  windows.  There 
were  five  large  arched  windows,  and  arched 
doors  to  give  ample  ingress  and  egress.  In  the 
front  wall  of  the  church  were  inserted  iron  let- 
ters bearing  the  inscription: 


22  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

1698 

SI  DEUS  PRO  NOBIS,     QUIS  CONTRA  NOS. 
Sub.   Imp.   Reg.   D.   G.   Aug. 

WILL  III 

Prop.  Will.   Penn.  Bice  -  Gub.  Will 

Magnif,   Reg.   Suec.   Nunc,   Glor.   Nemor. 

CAROL  XI 

Hue.   Ablig. 

E.  T.  B. 

W.  S. 

P.  L. 

On  the  eastern  gable  is  a  Latin  sentence 
which,  translated,  reads,  :<  The  light  arising 
from  on  high  shines  in  the  darkness." 

The  church  was  consecrated  with  all  solemnity. 
Upon  the  following  Christmas  matins  were 
held,  as  well  as  upon  Easter  Sunday  and  the 
Day  of  Pentecost.  On  each  occasion  the  church 
was  garlanded  and  side  lights  were  introduced 
to  add  to  the  attractiveness  of  the  event.  These 
additional  lights  were  provided  by  pine  torches, 
which  must  have  contributed  to  the  excitement, 
especially  of  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  watch 
over  them.  A  belfry  was  projected  for  the 
structure,  but  it  was  not  completed,  and  the 
church  bell  was  suspended,  temporarily,  from  a 
huge  walnut  tree  which  grew  close  by. 

The  pews  were  distributed  according  to  serv- 
ices rendered  in  the  erection  of  the  building, 
and  not  according  to  wealth  or  social  rank.  They 
became  also  inalienable  inheritances  in  the  f  ami- 


OF   AMERICA  23 

lies  of  the  original  owners,  descending  from 
father  to  son.  They  could,  if  need  arose,  be  sold, 
and,  in  case  of  the  removal  or  dying  out  of  a 
family,  reverted  by  law  to  the  church. 

Among  the  most  highly  prized  possessions  of 
Trinity  Church  is  a  large  eucharistic  cup,  to- 
gether with  a  paten  and  wafer  box  of  silver, 
which  were  sent  out  from  Sweden  in  1718  as  a 
gift  to  the  parish.  These  are  still  regularly  used 
at  communion. 

In  1735  it  was  decided  by  the  Swedish  colo- 
nists that  a  town  should  be  built  upon  the  church 
lands.  Adjoining  the  glebe  was  an  immense 
tract  belonging  to  an  Englishman  named 
Thomas  Willing.  Master  Willing  gladly  joined 
hands  with  the  church  vestry  in  this  undertaking, 
and  as  the  first  house  was  erected  upon  his  sec- 
tion of  the  town  site,  the  name  given  to  the 
locality  was  Willingstown.  Later,  when  the 
village  was  incorporated,  the  name  was  changed 
to  Wilmington,  in  honor  of  the  English  earl. 

After  the  death  of  the  Swedish  pastor,  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Tranberg,  in  1748,  the  parish  con- 
tained so  large  a  number  of  English-speaking 
members  among  the  communicants  that  it  was 
decided  to  conduct  each  alternate  service  in 
English. 

On  April  16,  1750,  a  meeting  of  the  parish 
was  called  to  consider  the  best  method  of 
strengthening  the  walls  of  the  church,  which  in 


24  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

spite  of  their  three  feet  of  thickness  had  begun 
to  yield  under  the  heavy  weight  of  the  roof. 
Through  some  oversight  or  lack  of  constructive 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  builders,  this  roof 
had  neither  arch  nor  beams,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing to  bind  together  the  upper  portions  of  the 
wall.  The  south  wall  was  rebuilt  and  a  new  roof 
was  constructed.  During  these  changes  addi- 
tional windows  were  introduced  to  obtain  more 
light  in  the  church. 

In  1792,  so  much  had  the  English-speaking 
people  increased  among  the  communicants  that 
it  was  decided,  after  due  deliberation,  to  adopt 
the  ritual  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
and  Trinity  Church  of  Wilmington  sought  and 
secured  admission  into  the  Diocese  of  Delaware 
of  that  denomination. 

On  May  28,  1899,  the  church  of  the  "  Old 
Swedes  "  celebrated  its  second  centennial.  The 
service  brought  together  from  many  distant  lo- 
calities the  descendants  of  the  original  communi- 
cants, eager  to  show  their  reverence  for  this 
visible  link  between  the  flourishing  city  of  Wil- 
mington and  the  past. 

In  the  churchyard  lie  the  dead  of  many  gen- 
erations, of  almost  every  religious  denomination. 
Here,  with  the  Swedish  colonists  who  came  to 
America  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  lies 
the  late  Bishop  Alfred  Lee  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  Although  most  modest  in  his  demean- 


OF   AMERICA  25 

our  and  his  pretensions,  so  ripe  was  his  judgment 
and  so  intimate  his  knowledge  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  that  he  was  selected  as  a  member  of 
the  American  Committee  for  the  Revision  of  the 
King  James  Bible.  In  the  old  Trinity  grave- 
yard, too,  lie  the  remains  of  the  Hon.  Thomas 
F.  Bayard,  who  won  for  himself  and  for  our 
government  such  high  esteem  and  praise  during 
his  ambassadorship  at  the  Court  of  St.  James's, 
to  which  he  was  appointed  by  President  Cleve- 
land. 


26  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


KING'S    CHAPEL 

BOSTON,    MASSACHUSETTS 

ON  Tremont  Street,  one  of  Boston's 
busiest  thoroughfares,  stands  King's 
Chapel,  the  first  edifice  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  in  New  England,  at  the 
laying  of  whose  corner  stone  in  1749  Governor 
Flurley  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  acted  as 
master  of  ceremonies. 

The  organisation  of  the  parish  dates  from 
May  15,  1686,  when  the  British  frigate  Rose 
brought  to  Boston  the  Reverend  Robert  Rat- 
cliffe,  an  established  minister  of  the  Church  of 
England,  together  with  the  members  of  a  com- 
mission appointed  by  King  James  II.  to  preside 
over  the  Church  in  America. 

Soon  after  the  arrival  of  these  dignitaries  they 
asked  permission  of  the  three  congregations  then 
owning'  houses  of  worship  in  Boston  to  use  their 
church  for  service,  a  request  which  met  with 
a  curt  refusal.  At  last  permission  was  grudg- 
ingly given  for  the  use  of  a  large  room  in  the 
east  end  of  the  town  house,  which  occupied  the 
site  of  the  present  City  Hall.  This  offer  of  an 


King's  Chapel,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


OF   AMERICA  27 

unconsecrated  building  failed  to  meet  the  appro- 
bation of  those  in  authority  in  the  Colony,  and 
on  March  2,  1687,  the  new  Governor,  Sir  Ed- 
mund Andros,  sent  a  peremptory  order  to  the 
trustees  of  Old  South  Church  to  throw  open 
their  edifice  for  Episcopal  service.  A  committee 
from  this  church  called  upon  the  Governor  and 
informed  him  that  their  church  property  did  not 
belong  to  the  state,  but  to  their  individual  organi- 
sation, and  declined  to  accede  to  his  demand. 

Two  days  later,  on  Good  Friday,  the  Gov- 
ernor ordered  the  sexton  of  South  Church  to 
throw  open  the  doors  forthwith  and  ring  the  bell 
to  summon  people  to  worship.  With  fear  and 
trembling  the  sexton  complied  and  the  Gover- 
nor with  his  staff  attended  service.  Before  the 
recall  of  Governor  Andros  in  1690,  a  small 
chapel  was  built,  but  as  to  how  the  land  was  pro- 
cured or  when  the  building  was  consecrated,  no 
records  tell  us.  Some  little  description  is  ob- 
tainable of  the  building,  however,  which  was 
square  in  form,  with  a  square  tower  at  the  west 
end,  while  from  the  roof  rose  a  staff  supporting 
a  weather  vane  with  an  English  crown  just 
below  it.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the  fifth 
house  of  worship  erected  in  Boston. 

When  the  news  of  the  death  of  King  James 
II.  of  England  reached  America  in  1702  the 
little  Episcopal  chapel  was  draped  in  mourning. 
It  had  never  been  named,  and  to  celebrate  the 


28  HISTORIC    CHURCHES- 

accession  to  the  throne  of  Queen  Anne  it  was 
called  Queen's  Chapel.  King  James  II.  had 
sent  to  the  little  chapel  the  Bible  that  is  still  in 
use  in  the  church,  together  with  a  valuable  silver 
communion  service.  Queen  Anne  sent  over  a 
red  silk  damask  cushion  for  the  pulpit,  surplices 
for  the  rectors  and  choir,  and  linen  for  the  altar. 
The  communion  rail  was  also  a  gift  from  Eng- 
land. Some  years  later  a  clock,  presented  to 
"  King's  Chapel "  by  "  gentlemen  of  the  British 
Society  "  in  Boston,  was  placed  in  position  with 
considerable  ceremony. 

At  the  Easter  service  in  1703  a  meeting  was 
announced  for  Whit- Sunday  to  consider  the  en- 
larging of  the  church  building.  A  subscription 
was  raised  and  the  work  begun  in  1710.  The 
chapel  was  practically  rebuilt,  being  enlarged  to 
twice  its  former  size.  More  than  three  years 
were  occupied  in  this  work.  In  the  remodelling 
of  the  interior  the  vestry  stipulated  that  each 
member  should  pay  the  cost  of  building  his  own 
pew,  a  method  which,  since  each  pew  holder  con- 
sulted his  own  taste,  resulted  in  a  wide  diversity 
of  styles. 

Fronting  the  pulpit  were  two  large,  square 
pews,  one  for  the  family  of  the  rector  and  the 
other  for  the  use  of  the  Governor  and  his  staff, 
together  with  any  British  officers  who  might  be 
stationed  in  Boston.  Directly  behind  these  were 
two  long  pews,  the  front  one  being  reserved  for 


OF   AMERICA  29 

the  "  Masters  of  the  Vessels,"  and  the  one  at  its 
back  for  eight  old  men  of  the  parish. 

The  luxurious  interior  of  the  church  con- 
trasted so  noticeably  with  the  rude  simplicity  of 
the  Puritan  meeting-houses  that  this  Episcopal 
house  of  worship  was  regarded  as  a  blot  upon 
the  soil  of  Massachusetts.  Its  walls  were  deco- 
rated with  banners,  escutcheons,  and  coats  of 
arms  of  the  King  of  England  and  the  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  of  the  noble  families 
of  England  whose  members  occupied  pews  in 
King's  Chapel.  On  the  east  wall  were  painted 
the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
the  Creed.  The  pulpit  was  of  the  prevailing 
style,  being  small,  narrow  and  raised  high  aloft 
above  the  heads  of  the  congregation.  On  it 
stood  an  hourglass  in  an  elaborate  brass  stand. 
When  the  chapel  was  reconstructed  in  1710-13 
the  pulpit  was  moved  to  the  "  next  pillar  at  the 
easte,  near  the  centre  of  the  church." 

In  1741  it  was  decided  that  the  little  chapel 
was  no  longer  big  enough  to  accommodate  the 
parish,  and  a  committee,  of  which  Peter  Faneuil 
was  treasurer,  was  appointed  to  secure  subscrip- 
tions for  a  new  church.  By  March,  1753,  it 
was  found  that  King's  Chapel  was  in  too  bad 
repair  for  further  use,  and  next  month  it  was 
demolished.  The  new  building,  whose  corner 
stone  was  laid  by  Governor  Flurley  in  1749, 
was  not  quite  ready  for  occupancy  and  the  par- 


30  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

ish  worshipped  in  the  meantime  with  the  mem- 
bers of  Trinity  Parish  in  their  church  edifice. 

An  organ  purchased  in  Europe  by  subscrip- 
tions from  members  of  the  parish,  and  said  to 
have  been  selected  by  Handel,  was  installed  in 
the  new  church  in  1756.  In  1772,  through  the 
influence  of  Governor  Hutchinson,  King  George 
III.  presented  to  the  parish  an  additional  euchar- 
istic  service  of  silver,  and  a  new  pulpit  as  well. 
King's  Chapel  was  regarded  as  the  protege  of 
the  English  royal  family,  and  became  the  fa- 
vourite place  of  worship  among  the  officers  of 
the  British  army  in  Massachusetts* 

While  the  Continental  troops  occupied  Bos- 
ton during  the  Revolution,  King's  Chapel  was 
closed.  When  it  was  again  opened  for  worship, 
the  parish  extended  an  invitation  to  the  Old 
South  Church  to  occupy  it  until  necessary  re- 
pairs could  be  made  to  their  own  edifice,  which 
had  been  desolated  by  the  British  army.  The 
Old  South  Church  members  accepted  the  offer 
and  gathered  in  King's  Chapel  for  worship  for 
nearly  fire  years. 

In  1790  a  colonnade  was  added  to  the  west 
end,  or  front,  of  the  church  building;  the  crown 
and  mitre  were  removed,  and  the  Governor's  pew 
with  its  elaborate  hangings  gave  place  to  two 
simple  pews  of  a  smaller  size.  Except  for  these 
alterations  the  interior  of  the  building  remains 
as  it  was  when  Boston  society  and  the  rank  and 


OF    AMERICA  31 

file  of  the  British  army  worshipped  in  it.  The 
exterior  has  seen  no  change  since  1790.  The 
colonial  feeling  of  bitterness  against  King's 
Chapel  on  the  part  of  other  denominations  sub- 
sided gradually,  and  disappeared  entirely  when 
the  parishioners  offered  their  church  so  promptly 
to  the  members  of  the  Old  South. 


32  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


THE   FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN 
CHURCH 

ELIZABETH,    NEW    JERSEY 

THE  church  organised  by  the  Presbyte- 
rian settlers  of  Elizabeth,  New  Jersey, 
enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  the  old- 
est English-speaking  church  within  the  bounda- 
ries of  the  State.  Its  first  church  building  was 
begun  by  the  settlers  of  Elizabeth  two  years 
after  the  necessary  organisation  was  effected  in 
1664,  a  commodious  and  substantially-built  struc- 
ture that  was  in  excellent  condition  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution — more  than  one  hundred  years 
later.  In  1760  an  addition  measuring  some 
twenty-four  feet  was  made  to  the  original  build- 
ing. A  gallery  was  also  built,  and  a  high  steeple, 
in  which  were  placed  the  church  bell  and  the 
town  clock. 

There  lived  no  more  ardent  adherent  to  the 
cause  of  the  Revolution  than  the  pastor  of  this 
First  church,  the  Reverend  James  Caldwell, 
who  performed  also  the  duties  of  chaplain  to  the 
New  Jersey  regiments.  His  popularity  among 
both  officers  and  men  was  unbounded  and  en- 
abled him  to  do  valiant  work  for  the  Master 


OF    AMERICA  33 

among  all  classes.  He  stood  high  in  the  confi- 
dence of  General  Washington,  and  was  respon- 
sible by  his  hope  and  courage  for  much  of  the 
reaction  from  the  despondency  that  for  a  time 
prevailed  as  to  the  final  result  of  the  war.  Of 
him  Washington  said,  "  No  man  in  New  Jersey 
has  contributed  so  much  toward  giving  direction 
and  energy  to  the  thoughts  and  movements  of 
her  citizens." 

During  the  Revolution  the  church  at  Eliza- 
beth became  more  or  less  of  a  centre  around 
which  many  skirmishes  and  engagements  took 
place  between  the  contending  armies.  In  the 
course  of  one  of  these  fights  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Caldwell,  finding  that  the  rounds  of  wadding 
were  running  short,  hastily  brought  from  the 
church  copies  of  the  hymn  books  and  tearing  out 
leaves  distributed  them  to  the  men,  to  be  made 
into  wads  for  their  guns,  exclaiming:  "Give 
them  Watts,  boys!  Give  them  Watts!" 

The  church  also  served  the  Continental  army 
as  a  hospital  for  the  sick  and  wounded,  and  gave 
its  steeple  as  a  watch  tower,  its  bell  sounding  the 
first  alarm  of  an  advance  of  the  British. 

With  a  pastor  and  congregation  so  united  and 
energetic  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  it  is  not  re- 
markable that  opportunity  for  vengeance  should 
have  been  sought  by  the  enemy.  On  January 
25,  1780,  the  church  was  fired  by  an  emissary 
from  the  British  ranks  and  utterly  destroyed. 


34  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Not  content  with  this,  the  English  succeeded  in 
killing  both  the  pastor  and  his  wife,  first  one 
and  then  the  other  being  shot  in  ambush.  They 
left  behind  them  six  children,  who  were  cared 
for  tenderly  by  the  congregation.  The  last  rest- 
ing place  of  this  "  fighting  parson  "  and  his  wife 
is  the  graveyard  about  the  church  they  both  loved 
so  well,  where  they  did  such  noble  work  for  both 
their  country  and  their  God. 

For  several  years  after  the  destruction  of  their 
church  the  Presbyterians  worshipped  in  a  large 
storehouse  temporarily  fitted  up  for  the  purpose. 
The  war  had  left  many  of  them  almost  ruined 
financially,  but  soon  after  peace  was  established 
and  their  finances  improved,  the  subject  of  build- 
ing a  new  house  of  worship  was  taken  up  with 
vigour.  So  earnest  were  the  members  in  their 
determination  to  build  a  new  church  that  funds 
were  not  found  lacking,  and  by  1791  the  congre- 
gation was  again  housed.  The  present  building 
still  in  use,  and  the  centre  of  many  endearing 
reminiscences,  is  the  structure  then  raised,  and, 
occupying  the  site  of  the  original  church,  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  objects  to  all  visitors  to 
Elizabeth. 


OF    AMERICA  35 


ZION   REFORMED    CHURCH 

ALLENTOWN,     PENNSYLVANIA 

THE  earliest  settlers  in  and  about  Allen- 
town,  Pennsylvania,  came  from  Switzer- 
land or  the  Palatinate,  and  were  members 
of  the  Reformed  faith.  Hence,  the  earlier 
history  of  Zion  Reformed  Church  is  largely 
identified  with  that  of  Allentown.  Indeed  in 
the  same  year  that  the  town  was  founded,  1762, 
the  founders  built  a  log  house  for  a  place  of  wor- 
ship, using  it  also  as  a  schoolhouse  for  many 
years.  The  present  church  stands  just  in  the 
rear  of  the  site  whereon  this  log  house  was 
erected. 

The  congregation  early  showed  great  wisdom 
in  the  selection  of  pastors  who  should,  in  serving 
them,  advance  also  the  cause  of  the  church  in 
that  part  of  Pennsylvania,  and  from  the  begin- 
ning prospered  well.  In  1770,  by  permission 
of  Governor  Penn,  there  was  a  goodly  collection 
of  funds  for  the  erection  of  a  new  church  build- 
ing, and  two  years  later,  on  June  25th,  the  corner 
stone  for  this  second  church  was  laid.  The  new 
church  was  built  of  stone,  at  the  then  consider- 
able cost  of  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars. 


36  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Some  years  later,  during  the  Revolution,  the 
church  served  as  sanctuary  and  place  of  refuge 
for  the  famous  liberty  bell.  When  the  British 
occupation  of  Philadelphia  became  inevitable 
there  was  great  fear  lest  the  bells  of  Christ 
Church,  and  the  "Liberty  Bell"  in  Independ- 
ence Hall,  might  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
enemy  and  be  melted  into  cannon.  To  avert  this 
fate,  made  probable  by  the  number  of  Tories 
in  the  city,  some  of  the  patriots  of  the  town, 
keeping  their  own  counsel,  quietly  loaded  the 
bells  on  waggons  and  hauled  them  from  the  city 
up  into  the  mountain  districts  where  loyalty 
was  unquestioned.  When  they  reached  Bethle- 
hem, with  its  State  hospital  for  the  Continental 
Army,  one  of  the  waggons  broke  down  under  its 
load,  but  rather  than  conceal  the  bells  there,  the 
location  of  the  hospital  being  known  to  the  Brit- 
ish, the  rescue  party  urged  itself  on  to  Allen- 
town.  Here,  under  the  floor  of  Zion  Reformed 
Church,  the  bells  remained  hidden  until  the  War 
was  over. 

As  the  population  and  wealth  of  Allentown 
increased,  this  old  stone  church  became  less 
suited  to  the  comforts  of  the  larger  and  more 
prosperous  congregation,  which  in  1838  laid  the 
corner  stone  of  a  more  modern  structure,  and  on 
the  7th  and  8th  of  June,  1840,  completed  it  and 
dedicated  the  edifice  to  the  worship  of  God. 
Until  that  time  services  had  been  rather  inter- 


Zion  Reformed  Church,  Allentown,  Pennsylvania 


OF    AMERICA  37 

mittently  held,  but  from  now  on  the  congrega- 
tion enjoyed  a  minister  of  their  own,  and  serv- 
ices were  given  alternately  in  the  German  tongue 
of  the  Fatherland,  and  in  the  English  of  the 
new  country  which  the  worthy  members  had 
adopted. 


38  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.  ANNE'S   PROTESTANT 
EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

BURLINGTON,    NEW    JERSEY 

ON  Lady  Day,  March  28,  1703,  the  cor- 
ner stone  of  the  venerable  church  of 
St.  Anne,  in  Burlington,  New  Jersey, 
was  laid  hy  the  Reverend  Doctor  Talbot,  the 
rector  of  the  parish,  and  the  first  service  was  held 
in  it  on  August  22  of  the  same  year,  before  the 
building  was  finished.     The  church  records  show 
that  the  first  communion  celebrated  within  its 
walls  was  upon  the  following  Whitsunday. 

The  name  given  to  the  new  parish  and  church 
seems  to  have  been  a  matter  of  considerable  dis- 
cussion. The  first  rector  spoke  of  it  always  as 
"  St.  Mary's,"  in  honour  of  Queen  Mary  of 
England,  the  wife  of  William  of  Orange,  and 
many  of  his  parishioners,  staunch  adherents  to 
the  cause  of  King  James  II.,  agreed  in  regard- 
ing his  daughter  Mary  as  the  rightful  sovereign 
to  honour.  They  would  not  countenance  the 
name  of  St.  Anne  for  their  parish,  since  they 
regarded  Queen  Anne  of  England  as  an  inter- 
loper and  usurper  of  the  throne.  As  years  went 
by,  however,  kindly  acts  on  the  part  of  this 


OF   AMERICA  39 

worthy  lady  toward  the  American  branches  of 
the  Church  of  England,  the  many  attempts  she 
made  to  improve  their  condition,  both  materi- 
ally and  spiritually,  revived  the  advisability  of 
giving  her  name  to  the  parish.  Gradually  the 
parish  came  to  agree  on  the  adoption  of  the  name 
of  St.  Mary  Ann,  and  as  the  years  went  by,  later 
generations  inclined  to  the  name  of  St.  Anne 
simply,  by  which  name  the  parish  has  been  known 
for  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

The  old  church  was  built  in  accordance  with 
the  architectural  style  in  vogue  two  hundred 
years  ago,  and  so  substantially  was  it  constructed 
that  it  has  never  shown  signs  of  decay,  but 
stands,  especially  to  the  antiquary  and  the  lover 
of  the  venerable,  as  one  of  the  ideal  points  of 
interest  in  Burlington  County,  New  Jersey. 

From  a  little  straggling  village  Burlington 
has  become  a  populous  city,  contemporary  with 
whose  growth  the  parish  of  St.  Anne's  has  pros- 
pered, numbering  among  its  members  many  men 
and  women  of  influence  in  that  section  of  the 
State. 

Since  the  settlement  long  ago  of  the  name  of 
the  parish  no  differences  of  opinion  have  arisen 
among  the  parishioners,  but  a  spirit  of  the 
utmost  harmony  has  existed,  together  with  that 
shoulder  to  shoulder  effort  that  produces  the 
best  results  in  advancing  the  cause  of  the  Master. 


40  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   MICHAEL'S 

MARBLEHEAD,   MASSACHUSETTS 

A    QUAINT  old  New  England  church 
that  enjoys  a  peculiar  harmony  with  its 
surroundings  is  St.  Michael's,  in  Mar- 
blehead,    Massachusetts,    the    organisation    of 
which  dates  back  almost  two  centuries.     Its  cor- 
ner stone  was  laid  on  September  2,  1714,  and  to- 
day the  building  is  still  used  regularly  for  divine 
worship. 

Of  the  thirty-three  persons  whose  names  ap- 
pear as  contributors  to  the  original  fund  of  St. 
Michael's,  twenty-nine  were  sea-captains,  who 
were  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  the  port  on  trad- 
ing trips  and  no  doubt  felt  the  need  of  the 
churchly  influence  to  which  they  were  accustomed 
at  home  in  England.  Not  only  did  they  supply 
money  themselves,  but  they  brought  from  Eng- 
land in  their  ships  nearly  all  of  the  materials  that 
were  to  be  used  in  the  construction  of  the  church, 
including  a  reredos,  surmounted  by  the  royal 
coat  of  arms,  that  was  esteemed  far  the  hand- 
somest that  had  yet  been  brought  to  America. 
The  pulpit,  of  old-fashioned  wine-glass  confor- 


OF   AMERICA  41 

mation,  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the  northern 
side  of  the  edifice,  with  a  reading  desk  in  front 
and  a  huge  sounding-board  above  it.  Even  so 
important  a  personage  as  the  collector  of  the 
port  of  Bristol,  in  England,  some  eight  years 
later,  presented  St.  Michael's  with  a  handsome 
brass  chandelier,  which  still  sways  from  the  same 
point  in  the  ceiling  where  it  was  rehung  in  1822. 
One  David  LaGallais  presented  a  silver  com- 
munion service  to  the  parish  in  1745,  the  heavy 
flagon  of  which,  weighing  four  pounds  and  bear- 
ing a  Latin  inscription,  is  still  in  use. 

When  the  news  of  the  signing  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  reached  Marblehead  a 
mob  of  patriots  broke  into  St.  Michael's,  tore 
down  the  royal  coat  of  arms  from  the  reredos 
and  rang  the  old  bell  for  Liberty  till  it  cracked. 
Services  were  for  a  long  time  suspended,  inas- 
much as  the  rector,  with  many  of  his  flock  who 
were  of  Loyalist  turn  of  mind,  fled  to  Nova 
Scotia  for  safety.  They  took  with  them  inci- 
dentally the  highly-prized  silver  communion 
service  and  the  parish  records.  These  latter 
were  returned  after  the  close  of  the  war,  but  the 
articles  of  the  service,  all  but  the  old  flagon, 
never  found  their  way  back.  During  these  same 
troublous  times,  one  churchman  of  St.  Michael's, 
so  greatly  did  he  fear  lest  in  the  destructive  fury 
of  the  mob  all  copies  of  the  Prayer  Book  should 
be  burned,  distinguished  himself  by  copying  with 


42  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

pen  and  ink  the  complete  contents  of  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer. 

In  1786  the  chanting  of  the  service  was  intro- 
duced at  St.  Michael's,  at  that  time  an  innovation 
in  American  Protestant  churches. 

In  the  course  of  time,  as  one  by  one  the  fami- 
lies of  the  communicants  died  or  removed  to  dis- 
tant localities,  the  parish  was  so  depleted  that 
in  1818  funds  were  no  longer  forthcoming  for 
the  support  of  the  church.  The  church  building 
was  closed,  and  the  glebe  sold  to  pay  off  the  debt 
of  the  parish.  In  1833,  however,  vigorous  at- 
tempts on  the  part  of  the  Congregationalists  to 
secure  possession  of  the  church  edifice  roused  the 
whole  Episcopal  church  of  the  United  States, 
until  parish  after  parish  contributed  aid  and  old 
St.  Michael's  was  once  more  set  upon  its  feet. 

St.  Michael's  church  contains  many  beautiful 
memorial  windows.  One,  representing  Moses 
on  Mount  Sinai,  was  a  gift  from  the  Massachu- 
setts State  Senate;  another,  the  gift  of  Mrs. 
Thomas  Appleton,  has  for  its  subject  Dorcas 
distributing  garments  to  the  poor.  The  memo- 
rial window  presented  by  the  Haskells  depicts 
the  Ascension. 

The  first  organ  set  up  in  the  church  was  a 
purchase  from  old  St.  Paul's  in  New  York  City, 
an  instrument  on  which  the  inaugural  march  was 
played  when  George  Washington  took  the  oath 
of  office  as  first  President  of  the  United  States. 


OF   AMERICA  43 

During  the  great  fire  at  Marblehead  in  1877, 
when  all  the  town  seemed  doomed  to  destruction, 
the  old  Church  was  saved  only  by  the  most  heroic 
efforts.  It  still  stands,  the  most  noble  sort  of 
monument  of  the  past,  and  the  recent  addition 
of  a  commodious  chapel  and  parish  house  shows 
the  continuing  progressive  spirit  of  its  parish- 
ioners. 


44  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


GLORIA   DEI 

PHILADELPHIA,  PENNSYLVANIA 

ON  June  30  and  July  8,  1697,  meetings 
were  held  by  the  Swedes  who  had  set- 
tled in  and  about  Philadelphia  to  con- 
sult upon  the  building  of  a  new  house  of  worship 
in  that  city.  Hitherto  they  had  met  in  two 
antiquated  structures  lying  a  number  of  miles 
apart,  one  at  Wicacoa  and  the  other  at  Tran- 
hook.  Both  of  these  buildings  growing  more 
and  more  dilapidated,  it  was  decided  in  the  July 
meeting  that  the  two  congregations  should  unite 
their  funds  and  erect  a  joint  house  of  God  at  a 
point  that  should  be  convenient  for  both.  No 
less  than  fifty-seven  families  were  represented, 
their  church  organisation  dating  back  more  than 
thirty  years,  to  the  time  of  the  first  Swedish  emi- 
grants to  America  in  1667. 

Ground  was  broken  for  the  new  church  on 
September  19,  1697,  the  site  along  the  Dela- 
ware River  having  been  presented  to  the  con- 
gregation by  Svan  Swanson.  Work  progressed 
so  rapidly  that  within  one  year  the  building  was 
almost  ready  for  consecration.  Upon  the  west 
end  of  the  church  a  cross  wall  was  intentionally 


OF   AMERICA  45 

left  unfinished  until  it  could  be  learned  whether 
a  chime  of  bells  could  be  obtained  from  Sweden, 
in  which  case  a  belfry  was  to  be  added.  The 
church  was  of  ample  dimensions,  being  sixty  by 
thirty  feet  and  twenty  feet  high.  The  corners 
on  the  eastern  side  were  flat  and  the  foundations 
were  of  stone,  while  the  walls  were  of  brick, 
each  brick  glazed  separately. 

The  building  was  dedicated  on  July  2,  1700, 
by  the  pastor,  the  Reverend  Eric  Bjork,  and  in 
token  of  the  thankfulness  of  the  parishioners  it 
was  given  the  name  "  Gloria  Dei."  The  Swedes 
were  now  joined  in  worship  regularly  by  many 
English  families,  who  shared  their  gratification. 

In  1704,  when  the  walls  seemed  about  to  give 
way  under  the  weight  of  the  roof,  a  sacristy  was 
erected  adjoining  the  north  end  of  the  structure 
and  a  vestibule  built  against  the  south  side,  over 
the  great  entrance  door,  additions  which  mate- 
rially strengthened  the  walls. 

In  1710  permission  was  granted  to  members 
of  the  Church  of  England  to  use  Gloria  Dei  for 
worship  each  Sunday  after  the  Swedish  service 
was  over  with.  At  this  later  service,  which  began 
at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  a  hymn  was 
invariably  sung  in  Swedish  as  a  token  of  the 
unity  existing  between  the  two  organisations. 
This  harmony,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  naturally 
paved  the  way  for  the  gradual  adoption  of  Eng- 
lish in  the  regular  services  of  the  church. 


46  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

The  old  church  is  still  in  use,  and  upon  May 
27,  1897,  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
dedication  of  the  building  was  held,  an  occasion 
which  brought  together  many  of  the  descendants 
of  the  pioneer  members  of  the  parish. 


OF   AMERICA  47 


"OLD   NORTH" 

CHRIST   CHURCH 
BOSTON,,    MASSACHUSETTS 

THE  Old  North  Church  in  Boston  owes 
its  existence  virtually  to  differences  of 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  the  execution 
of  King  Charles  I.  of  England  in  1649.  So 
various  were  the  arguments  for  and  against  the 
regicide,  ecclesiastical  and  otherwise,  that  among 
other  dissensions  certain  worshippers  in  the  New 
World  seceded  from  the  "First  Church"  in 
Boston  and  established  themselves  as  the  "  Sec- 
ond Church  of  Christ,"  their  edifice,  on  account 
of  its  geographic  location,  becoming  known 
as  the  North  Church.  The  new  organisation 
avowedly  stood  for  political  as  well  as  religious 
independence,  and  amply  justified  its  title,  con- 
ferred upon  it  by  a  British  officer,  of  "  a  nest  of 
traitors." 

The  new  organisation  came  into  being  in  1650, 
but  the  members  were  too  poor  at  first  to  build 
a  house  of  God,  or  even  to  pay  for  the  services 
of  a  minister.  This  last  they  atoned  for  later  by 
the  repute  of  their  pastors,  for  their  third  minis- 
ter, chosen  in  1664,  was  no  less  a  worthy  than  the 


48  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

famous  Increase  Mather.  Under  his  pastorate 
indeed,  the  church  began  a  career  which  has,  per- 
haps, been  of  more  influence  than  that  of  any 
other  one  church  body  in  America. 

The  structure  in  which  Increase  Mather 
preached  was  a  large  square  building,  with  a 
high  pulpit  and  high-back  pews.  Some  of  these 
latter  had  private  doors  that  led  out  into  the  side 
street.  The  church  was  used  also  as  a  firehouse, 
and  on  the  outside  of  the  building  were  ladders 
for  use  in  case  of  fire.  Like  many  other  early 
church  interiors,  Old  North  was  innocent  of 
stoves.  Ironically  enough,  in  view  of  these  facts, 
the  church  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1673,  and 
was  replaced  the  following  year  with  a  much 
larger  edifice,  also  of  wood.  This  building, 
which  was  provided  with  a  low  belfry,  was  re- 
garded as  "  a  model  of  architecture,"  and  served 
as  a  house  of  worship  for  almost  one  hundred 
years,  or  until  the  winter  of  1775-6,  when  it  was 
torn  down  and  used  for  firewood  by  the  British, 
after  having  been  used  as  a  firehouse  and  public 
arsenal  for  powder  by  the  town  corporation. 
From  the  time  the  original  church  was  built  the 
duties  of  the  citizens  and  patriots  as  well  as 
Christianity  had  been  preached  from  its  pulpit, 
and  to  the  vigorous  patriotism  of  its  members 
no  doubt  was  due  in  a  great  measure  the  particu- 
larly harsh  treatment  the  building  received  at  the 
hands  of  the  enemy. 


The  Old  North  Church,  Boston,  Massachusetts 


OF   AMERICA  49 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  the  Old 
North  Church  united  with  the  "  Brick  Church," 
whose  membership  had  been  greatly  reduced,  a 
formal  union  of  the  two  bodies  being  effected 
in  1779. 

From  its  foundation  much  of  the  name  and 
fame  of  this  celebrated  church  has  been  due  to 
the  personnel  of  its  ministry  and  members.  In- 
crease Mather  was  known  throughout  the  Colo- 
nies and  his  repute  still  lingers.  The  great 
Emerson  began  attendance  of  divine  worship 
there  in  1829,  and  by  his  influence  and  personal- 
ity no  doubt  roused  his  fellow  members  to  a 
sincere  spiritual  life.  In  1840  began  the  pastor- 
ate of  the  Reverend  Henry  Ware,  under  whom 
came  about  the  separation  from  the  orthodox 
Congregationalists.  The  beginnings  of  the 
great  American  crusade  against  intemperance 
date  also  from  this  time.  The  Reverend  Henry 
Ware's  important  influence  in  ecclesiastical,  po- 
litical and  social  spheres  was  thrown  in  favour 
of  this  new  cause,  and  undoubtedly  lent  new 
glory  to  Old  North. 


50  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


THE    OLD    TENNENT    CHURCH 

FREEHOLD,    NEW    JERSEY 

CLOSE  to  the  battlefield  of  Monmouth, 
near  Freehold,  New  Jersey,  stands  an 
old  church,  the  original  organisation  of 
which  was  formed  by  Scotch  Covenanters  in 
1692.  A  simply  constructed  meeting-house 
some  five  miles  north  of  the  present  site  served 
as  the  first  church  structure.  This  rudely  built 
house  of  worship  was  used  for  forty  years,  until 
in  1731  the  congregation  erected  the  present 
church,  which  has  long  been  known  by  the  name 
of  its  most  famous  pastor,  the  Reverend  William 
Tennent,  who  came  to  America  from  Ireland  in 
1730.  The  church  is  built  of  wood,  with  a  shin- 
gle roof,  and  from  the  date  of  its  erection  has 
invariably  been  painted  white.  During  its 
earlier  years  it  was  called  the  "  Scots  Church," 
and  its  corporate  title  is  "  The  First  Presbyte- 
rian Church  of  the  County  of  Monmouth,"  but 
its  familiar  name  is  always  the  Old  Tennent 
Church. 

The  Old  Tennent  Church  has  witnessed  many 
stirring  scenes.  Within  its  walls  the  evangelist 
Whitefield  preached  one  of  his  most  famous  ser- 


OF   AMERICA  51 

mons.  On  June  28,  1778,  the  Battle  of  Mon- 
mouth  was  fought  around  it  and  Washington 
made  his  headquarters  in  the  churchyard,  con- 
ducting the  movements  of  the  army  from  that 
point  of  observation.  One  of  his  subalterns, 
who,  while  sitting  on  a  tombstone  tying  his  shoe- 
string, was  dangerously  wounded  by  a  cannon 
ball,  was  carried  into  the  church,  temporarily  a 
hospital,  and  to  this  day  the  stains  of  his  blood 
are  plainly  to  be  seen  on  the  cushion  of  the  seat 
where  they  laid  him,  as  well  as  upon  the  floor. 
The  churchyard  also  contains  the  graves  of  many 
soldiers  of  both  armies,  and  is  the  last  resting- 
place  of  Colonel  Monckton  of  the  British  army, 
killed  in  the  Battle  of  Monmouth. 

In  1751  the  edifice  was  rebuilt  and  enlarged  in 
order  to  meet  the  demands  of  its  increased  at- 
tendance. No  change,  however,  was  made  in  its 
interior  arrangements,  and  to-day  the  church 
used  regularly  for  divine  worship  is  as  it  was  in 
the  days  of  its  infancy.  Embowered  in  a  grove 
of  forest  trees,  in  the  centre  of  its  graveyard 
containing  more  than  two  thousand  graves,  it 
presents  a  most  ancient  and  venerable  appear- 
ance. One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of 
the  interior  is  the  facsimile,  hanging  on  its  walls, 
of  the  handsomely  emblazoned  Royal  Charter 
granted  to  the  Church  organisation  by  King 
George  II. 


52  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.    GEORGE'S 

HEMPSTEAD,    LONG    ISLAND 

IN  1702  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of 
the  Gospel  sent  out  from  England  the  Rev- 
erend John  Thomas,  who  held  his  first 
service  in  Hempstead,  Long  Island,  conducting 
it  in  what  was  known  as  the  Independent  meet- 
ing-house. Governor  Keith,  who  had  been 
reared  as  a  Quaker,  in  describing  this  event,  de- 
clared that  "  such  a  multitude  of  people  had 
gathered  that  the  church  could  not  hold  them; 
and  many  stood  outside  the  door  or  looked  in 
through  the  windows."  This  was  the  first  Epis- 
copal service  ever  held  on  Long  Island. 

The  first  Protestant  Church  in  Hempstead, 
St.  George's,  was  built  in  1704,  and  on  December 
26th  of  that  year  this  same  Reverend  John 
Thomas  was  installed  as  first  rector  of  the  parish. 
The  communicants  were  mostly  simple  farmers, 
not  heavily  endowed  with  worldly  goods,  and 
they  built  their  first  church  inexpensively,  fol- 
lowing the  model  of  the  village  churches  they 
remembered  in  Old  England. 

Twenty  years  later,  in  1724,  this  first  church 
building  was  outgrown,  and  on  April  8th  the 


•at  titan  •••«*> 


|flff  •••••^••••••••^••••••il  I"  "  "I    U 


St.  George's,  Hempstead,  Long  Island 


OF   AMERICA  53 

parish  chose  a  site  for  the  erection  of  a  new  house 
of  worship,  which  they  completed  within  a  year. 
On  St.  George's  Day,  April  28th,  1735,  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Colony  of  New 
York,  George  Clark,  presented  the  church  with 
the  royal  coat  of  arms,  splendidly  emblazoned. 
In  his  capacity  of  Secretary  of  St.  George's 
parish  he  also  presented  the  new  church  with  a 
set  of  altar  furniture  upholstered  in  crimson 
damask.  A  wealthy  invalid  from  the  West  In- 
dies who  spent  his  summers  in  Hempstead  con- 
tributed a  silver  baptismal  bowl.  To  these  were 
added  from  time  to  time  the  Bible,  the  Prayer 
Book,  the  pulpit  frontal  and  the  original  silver 
communion  service  that  had  been  given  to  the 
little  church  in  1705  by  Queen  Anne. 

The  church  edifice  was  of  the  usual  cruciform 
type,  having  round  arches  and  the  sides  and  roof 
being  shingled.  Its  dimensions  were  fifty  by 
thirty-six  feet,  and  there  was  a  tower  fourteen 
feet  square,  surmounted  by  a  steeple  one  hun- 
dred feet  high.  In  the  walls  of  the  church  near 
the  entrance  was  a  tablet  bearing  the  verse  from 
Ecclesiastes,  "  Keep  thy  feet  when  thou  goest 
into  the  House  of  God."  There  were  in  all 
some  eighteen  pews,  the  front  one  deeded  to 
Lieutenant-Governor  Clark,  who  was  also  one 
of  the  vestrymen  of  the  parish.  On  June  27, 
1735,  St.  George's  received  its  charter  from  the 
State  of  New  York. 


54  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

During  the  Revolution  the  sacred  building 
was  put  to  use  as  a  stable  by  the  British  troopers 
stationed  in  the  vicinity,  and  services  were  inter- 
rupted until  after  the  close  of  the  war,  when  the 
energetic  and  God-fearing  parishioners  carefully 
repaired  it,  brought  out  their  treasures  from 
their  hiding  places,  restored  order  once  more,  and 
again  held  worship  there.  On  November  3,  1785, 
the  first  ordination  in  the  State  of  New  York 
took  place;  the  candidate  for  orders  was  John 
Lowe  from  Virginia,  and  Bishop  Seabury  offi- 
ciated. 

In  1842  the  little  church  building  gave  place 
to  a  larger  and  more  modern  structure,  built  of 
all  that  was  available  of  the  old  materials,  and 
occupying  the  same  site  as  its  predecessor.  This 
building  is  still  occupied  by  the  parish  as  a  house 
of  worship,  and  in  the  little  churchyard  are 
graves  of  British  officers  and  soldiers  of  both 
armies  side  by  side  with  those  of  former  mem- 
bers of  the  parish.  Among  these  lies  the  body 
of  the  first  Protestant  Episcopal  Bishop  in 
America,  the  Right  Reverend  Samuel  Seabury, 
who  died  in  1764. 


OF    AMERICA  55 


TRINITY   CHURCH 

NEWPORT,   RHODE   ISLAND 

THE  history  of  Trinity  Protestant  Epis- 
copal    Church     of     Newport,     Rhode 
Island,   is   replete   with   interest.     The 
date  of  its  organisation  reaches  back  to  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  while  no  less 
a  personage  stood  sponsor  for  it  than  Sir  Ed- 
mund Andros,  the  accredited  representative  of 
King  James  II.  to  the  New  England  colonies, 
as  well  as  to  New  York  and  New  Jersey. 

With  the  permission  of  Governor  Andros,  Sir 
Francis  Nicholson,  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
New  York,  organised  the  parish  of  .Trinity  in 
1688,  although  no  church  edifice  was  erected  until 
1702.  When  this  was  completed,  the  wardens 
sent  a  request  to  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London 
for  a  rector,  and  the  Reverend  James  Hony- 
man  came  over  with  but  little  delay.  In  1709 
Queen  Anne,  who  was  never  inattentive  to  her 
churches  in  America,  gave  a  bell  to  be  placed  in 
the  tower.  In  the  construction  of  the  building 
the  services  of  the  famous  architect,  Peter  Har- 
rison, were  employed,  and  as  a  result  of  his 
efforts  the  little  Church  of  England  in  New- 


56  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

port  obtained  a  more  artistic  house  of  worship 
than  was  usual  in  the  early  American  colonies. 
In  fact,  Trinity  Church  was  considered  the 
finest  structure  of  its  time. 

In  1729  Trinity  received  a  visit  from  the  cele- 
brated dean  of  Terry,  Ireland,  the  Reverend 
George  Berkeley,  Lord  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  and 
the  author  of  the  famous  verse  beginning, 
:<  Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way." 
During  a  trip  which  the  dean  took  to  the  Ber- 
mudas in  the  interest  of  education,  his  vessel 
encountered  a  severe  storm,  was  driven  out  of 
its  course,  and  finally  sailed  into  Newport  har- 
bour on  a  Sunday  morning.  The  dean  dis- 
patched a  letter  to  the  rector  of  Trinity  Church, 
announcing  his  unexpected  arrival.  This  was 
delivered  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Honyman  in  the 
pulpit,  and  after  the  missive  had  been  read  aloud 
service  was  postponed  while  the  congregation 
went  in  a  body  to  the  pier  to  welcome  the  dis- 
tinguished prelate.  Upon  the  return  of  the 
Lord  Bishop  of  Cloyne  to  England,  he  sent 
Trinity  Church,  as  a  token  of  the  kindly  recep- 
tion he  had  met,  a  fine  organ  with  a  massive 
case  capped  with  a  crown  and  two  mitres. 

The  little  parish  prospered  until  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  In  those  troublous  times  many  of 
the  parishioners  whose  sympathies  were  with  the 
British  fled  from  the  country,  and  the  more 
wanton  of  the  Continental  army  desecrated  the 


OF   AMERICA  57 

church  when  they  occupied  Newport.  The  lion 
and  the  unicorn  of  the  royal  family  of  England 
were  torn  from  the  wall,  and  carried  to  one  of  the 
batteries,  where  the  soldiers  used  the  escutch- 
eon as  a  target  in  gun  practice.  By  some 
good  fortune  the  crowns  upon  the  weather  vane 
and  the  organ  were  overlooked  and  so  escaped 
destruction. 

During  the  war  the  services  were  held  irregu- 
larly, but  after  peace  had  been  declared  the  par- 
ish promptly  repaired  the  church  and  secured  a 
permanent  rector  again. 

But  little  has  been  done  since  in  the  way  of 
alteration,  both  within  and  without  the  church 
edifice.  The  same  big  high-backed  pews,  the 
same  pulpit  raised  high  upon  its  pedestal,  and  the 
original  sounding-board  may  still  be  seen.  Serv- 
ices are  held  regularly,  and  the  parish  of  Trinity 
has  steadily  improved. 


58  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   ANNE   DE  BEAUPRE 

QUEBEC 

ONE  threatening  day,  of  the  many  for- 
gotten days  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
a  terrific  storm  broke  upon  a  little 
band  of  simple  peasants  from  Brittany,  as  their 
frail  vessel  made  its  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence 
River.  They  were  seeking  a  home  in  the  new 
country  that  should  leave  them  safe  from  re- 
ligious persecution,  and  in  fear  of  shipwreck  at 
the  very  end  of  their  quest  they  joined  in  prayers 
to  the  good  St.  Anne  d'Auray.  A  vow  was 
made  that  if  the  storm  should  abate  through 
her  intercession  they  would  build  a  chapel  to 
her  memory.  Spared  from  the  tempest  at  last, 
across  a  little  stream  from  the  present  parish  of 
St.  Joachim  they  landed,  and  there  erected  a 
simple  little  wooden  chapel,  never  realising  that 
they  were  laying  the  foundations  of  a  church 
whose  fame  should  spread  to  all  corners  of  the 
earth. 

As  the  years  passed  on,  a  little  village,  by 
name  Petit  Cap,  sprang  up  about  the  chapel, 
though  .the  original  builders,  swept  on  in  the 


OF   AMERICA  59 

tide  of  emigration,  are  unknown  by  name  to  pos- 
terity. 

Weather  and  storm  finally  accomplishing  their 
work  with  this  poor  little  chapel,  in  1660  a  pious 
farmer  donated  land  for  a  new  church  edifice, 
providing  only  that  work  should  begin  at  once. 
A  priest  came  from  Quebec  to  bless  the  land 
and  the  foundations,  accompanied  by  Monsieur 
d'Aillebout,  the  Governor  of  New  France,  who 
laid  the  new  corner  stone.  This  second  chapel, 
built  of  stone,  arose  close  to  the  site  of  the 
original  chapel.  To  it  flocked  thousands  of 
pilgrims,  and  the  wondrous  cures  that  began  to 
be  wrought  at  this  shrine  of  St.  Anne  became 
more  and  more  widely  known.  Among  the 
earliest  pilgrims  perhaps  the  most  prominent  was 
the  first  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Quebec,  a 
member  of  the  ancient  and  very  honourable 
family  of  the  Barons  Montmorenci  de  Laval, 
who  had  forsaken  family  and  ambition  to  go  as 
an  humble  apostle  to  the  Indians  in  a  primitive 
New  World  Mission,  and  step  by  step  had  been 
advanced  by  the  Church  until  he  became  its  head 
in  Canada. 

The  reputation  of  the  little  shrine  in  the  mis- 
sion chapel  gradually  spread  to  the  Old  World, 
and  gained  the  attention  of  royalty,  notably  the 
mother  of  the  French  King  Louis  XIV.,  Anne 
of  Austria,  then  Queen  Regent  during  the  min- 
ority of  her  son.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  affairs 


60  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

of  state  that  could  not  be  surrendered  to  Cardi- 
nal Richelieu  she  found  time  to  work  with  her 
own  hands  a  chasuhle  for  the  priest  in  charge  of 
the  chapel  of  St.  Anne.  Ornamented  with  red, 
white  and  black  arrows,  with  a  quantity  of  artis- 
tic gold  and  silver  embroidery,  this  chasuble  is 
still  one  of  the  most  cherished  relics  of  St.  Anne 
de  Beaupre,  and  at  all  feast  days  is  placed  upon 
the  altar.  Bishop  Laval  also  gave  a  costly  silver 
reliquary,  studded  with  gems,  and  two  pictures 
painted  by  a  Franciscan  friar.  A  crucifix  of 
solid  silver  was  the  gift  in  1706  of  the  great 
French  explorer,  Lamoine  d'Iberville.  In  1775 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Quebec  presented 
to  the  church  a  magnificent  banner  seven  and 
one-half  feet  high  .and  four  and  one-half  feet 
across,  with  a  painting  on  it  representing  the 
good  St.  Anne  and  the  Virgin  Mary.  Even 
more  touching  than  these  relics,  which  can  be  seen 
to  this  day,  are  the  many  discarded  crutches  and 
other  pathetic  aids  of  infirm  humanity  with 
which  the  shrine  is  stacked.  Mingled  with  these 
also  are  hearts  of  silver  or  gold,  presented  as 
memorials  of  wondrous  cures  experienced  by  the 
more  wealthy  of  those  who  have  sought  aid  of 
the  good  St.  Anne. 

A  new,  and  third  church,  built  in  1776  to  ac- 
commodate the  increasing  throngs,  was  blessed 
and  crowned  by  a  rescript  from  the  hand  of  His 
Holiness,  Pope  Pius  VI.,  bearing  the  date  of 


OF   AMERICA  61 

May  7th,  and  declaring  St.  Anne  the  patron 
saint  of  the  Province  of  Quebec.  Within  the 
new  church  are  no  less  than  eight  altars,  gifts 
to  the  parish  from  active  bishops  of  various  prov- 
inces of  Canada.  The  Cardinal  at  Quebec 
gave  the  high  altar,  the  parishioners  gave  two 
unusually  beautiful  stained  glass  windows,  which 
attract  universal  admiration  in  the  chancel. 
Upon  the  walls  of  the  church  are  many  paintings 
by  artists  who  have  depicted  their  deliverance 
from  shipwreck  or  other  ill  fortune. 

In  order  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
original  church,  the  Chapel  of  the  Processions, 
consecrated  October  2,  1878,  and  in  design  fol- 
lowing the  original  plans,  was  built  largely  out 
of  the  original  materials.  The  same  tower  was 
used,  and  the  old  bell  still  calls  its  multitudes  of 
pilgrims.  The  little  chapel  stands  upon  an 
eminence,  and  just  at  the  entrance  door  gushes 
out  a  fountain,  at  which  the  weary  pilgrims 
quench  their  thirst.  Above  this  fountain  is  a 
statue  of  Bonne  Ste.  Anne  de  Beaupre,  the  num- 
ber of  whose  pilgrims  is  almost  incredible,  and 
annually  increases. 


62  HISTORIC   CHURCHES 


THE    FIRST   DUTCH   REFORMED; 
CHURCH 

NEW   YORK  CITY 

THE  first  meetings  of  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church  in  New  Amsterdam 
were  held  in  the  loft  of  a  horse-mill 
which  the  settlers  had  made  shift  to  fit  up  with 
seats  and  chairs,  having  provided  for  this  sec- 
ond-story loft  when  the  mill  was  built  as  a  less 
costly  expedient  than  the  erection  of  an  entire 
church. 

In  1642  the  First  Dutch  Church  of  St.  Nich- 
olas, as  the  members  had  styled  their  organisa- 
tion, reared  its  first  real  house  of  worship,  which 
was  built  within  the  fort,  for  better  protection 
against  the  Indians.  It  was  a  simple  enough 
thing  in  architecture,  with  two  peaks  in  the  for- 
mation of  its  roof,  between  which  a  "  tower 
loomed  aloft,"  but  such  as  it  was  accommodated 
the  worshippers  till  1691. 

At  that  time  in  narrow  Liberty  Street,  near  by, 
an  old  lady,  Mother  Drisius,  who  owned  an 
extensive  peach  orchard,  a  desirable  plot  of 
ground,  was  induced  to  sell  it  to  the  Dutch  Re- 
formed Church  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  upon 


OF   AMERICA  63 

this  site  they  erected  the  building  that  was  dedi- 
cated in  1693,  by  far  the  most  substantial  and 
the  finest  church  yet  built  in  Manhattan.  It  was 
a  rectangular  structure  of  brick,  with  a  square 
steeple,  so  large  that  its  base  made  a  room  big 
enough  to  accommodate  the  meetings  of  the 
whole  consistory.  The  windows  of  the  church 
were  long  and  narrow,  each  containing  many 
small  panes  of  glass  upon  which  Master  Gerard 
Duyckinck  burned  the  coats  of  arms  of  the  prin- 
cipal families  of  the  congregation.  The  bell 
and  the  pulpit,  as  well  as  such  other  furniture 
as  the  original  church  building  had  boasted  of, 
were  transferred  to  the  new  house.  Conspicu- 
ous among  the  interior  decorations  of  the  new 
church  were  the  escutcheons  painted  in  vivid 
colours  upon  the  interior  walls,  representing,  as 
on  the  windows,  the  arms  of  each  family  of 
prominence  included  in  the  church  organisa- 
tion. 

Special  distinction  was  given  the  nine  trustees 
of  the  church,  for  whom  seats  directly  in  front 
of  and  below  the  high  pulpit  were  provided. 

In  1694  the  members  of  the  Consistory  sent  to 
Holland  a  quantity  of  silver  coins  from  which 
was  cast  the  baptismal  bowl  that  has  since  been 
used  for  every  St.  Nicholas  generation.  The 
most  skilled  silversmiths  in  Amsterdam  were  em- 
ployed to  cast  and  ornament  it.  The  church  has 
long  regarded  this  bowl  as  its  most  precious  pos- 


64  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

session,  with  its  engraved  sentiments  composed 
by  Dominie  Selwyn,  and  its  rich  associations. 

As  the  years  went  on  and  Manhattan  village 
grew,  the  little  church  in  Liberty  Street  proved 
too  small  for  the  congregation,  and  new  houses 
of  worship  were  erected,  first  at  Fifth  Avenue 
and  Twenty-first  Street,  and  next  the  present 
edifice  at  Thirty-eighth  Street  and  Madison  Ave- 
nue. Though  not  ancient  in  point  of  years,  St. 
Nicholas'  Church  as  it  stands  to-day  looks  back 
on  a  quaint  and  interesting  history,  from  the 
time  when  its  nine  trustees  secured  the  first  char- 
ter ever  granted  to  a  religious  organisation  in 
New  Amsterdam. 


OF   AMERICA  S5 


BRUTON   PARISH   CHURCH 

WILLIAMSBURG,  VIRGINIA 

UNFORTUNATELY  for  the  historian 
and  the  antiquary,  the  earliest  history 
of  Bruton  Parish  Church,  like  that  of 
St.  David's  at  Radnor,  in  Pennsylvania,  is  lost 
in  obscurity,  since  the  original  records  of  the 
Virginia  colonies,  both  ecclesiastic  and  of  the 
State,  were  destroyed  before  the  year  1632. 
From  such  meagre  data  as  can  be  obtained  it 
appears  that  in  that  year  there  was  "  laid  out  and 
paled  in"  a  section  of  James  City  County  to 
be  designated  as  "Middle  Plantation,"  which 
shortly  afterward  was  renamed  "  Middle  Plan- 
tation Parish."  In  1644  still  another  parish  was 
formed  in  this  same  county,  to  which  the  name 
of  "  Harrop  Parish  "  was  given,  and  on  April 
1,  1648,  Harrop  Parish  united  itself  with  the 
Middle  Plantation  Parish,  the  name  then  being 
changed  to  Middletown  Parish.  The  parish  of 
Marston,  formed  in  York  County  in  1654,  was 
embodied  twenty  years  later  in  the  parish  of 
Middletown,  to  which  again  the  parish  name 
of  "  Bruton "  was  given.  The  origin  of  this 
new  designation  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 


66  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

that  directly  at  the  entrance  of  the  north  tran- 
sept door  of  the  Bruton  Parish  Church  is  the 
tomb  of  Sir  Thomas  Ludwell,  with  an  inscrip- 
tion stating  that  Sir  Thomas  was  born  "  at  Bru- 
ton, in  the  County  of  Summerset,"  in  England. 
The  date  of  his  death  was  1678,  and  it  is  to  this 
English  knight  that  Bruton  Parish  owes  its 
name. 

That  there  was  an  earlier  church  edifice  than 
the  one  referred  to  in  the  parish  records  under 
date  of  April  18,  1674,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
mention  is  definitely  made  of  the  "  Old  Church," 
as  well  as  of  a  decision  reached  by  the  vestry  of 
Bruton  Parish  to  build  a  new  church,  "  after  the 
model  of  the  one  in  Williamsburg."  The  be- 
ginning of  a  church  existence  in  this  building, 
the  foundations  of  which  were  unearthed  quite 
recently,  is  noted  in  an  entry  in  the  parish  rec- 
ords under  date  of  November  29,  1683:— 
"  Whereas,  ye  Brick  Church  at  Middle  Planta- 
tion is  now  finished."  The  first  service  held  in 
the  new  edifice  was  on  Epiphany  Sunday,  1684. 
The  records  also  speak  of  an  "  old  communion 
table  "  which  had  been  removed  to  the  rectory, 
and  also  of  the  existence  of  a  "ring  of  bells." 

From  the  same  source  we  learn  that  Colonel 
John  Page,  to  whose  liberality  the  church  was 
indebted  for  this  new  edifice,  claimed  the  right  to 
construct  for  himself  and  family  a  pew  in  the 
chancel,  the  other  communicants  distributing 


OF   AMERICA  67 

themselves  according  to  the  usual  rule  in  Colonial 
times— "  the  men  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Church,  and  the  women  on  the  left."  Later  the 
gallery  was  assigned  to  the  students  of  William 
and  Mary  College. 

The  removal  of  the  seat  of  the  state  govern- 
ment from  Jamestown  to  Williamsburg  in  1699 
was  of  great  benefit  to  Bruton  Parish  Church, 
since  from  that  time  it  could  he  termed  the  Court 
Church  of  Colonial  Virginia.  Not  only  were 
the  Governor  of  State  and  his  staff  pew  hold- 
ers and  regular  attendants,  but  the  members  of 
the  House  of  Burgesses  and  all  distinguished 
visitors  who  came  to  Williamsburg  on  state  busi- 
ness also  worshipped  there.  So  increased  indeed 
was  the  attendance  that  in  1701  the  little  parish 
church  could  no  longer  accommodate  all  who 
came,  and  in  the  course  of  the  next  ten  years 
measures  were  taken  to  erect  a  new  structure. 
The  House  of  Burgesses  provided  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  pews  for  the  Governor,  the 
Council  and  themselves,  and  engaged  that  if  the 
vestry  would  secure  the  means  to  build  the  two 
ends  of  the  church,  "the  State  Government 
should  take  care  of  the  wings  and  intervening 
portion."  The  new  building  was  finished  in 
1715,  and  in  its  furnishings  were  embodied  the 
old  baptismal  font  and  the  silver  communion 
service  that  had  been  originally  the  property  of 
the  church  at  Jamestown.  There  was  also  a 


68  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

set  of  communion  silver  presented  to  the  College 
of  William  and  Mary  in  1686,  and  a  set  bearing 
the  coat  of  arms  of  King  George  III.  These 
memorials  are  still  in  the  possession  of  the  parish. 

The  days  of  the  Revolution  proved  unusually 
trying  to  the  communicants  of  Bruton  parish, 
since  their  love  for  the  mother  country  was  most 
intense,  bound  as  they  were  to  England  by  many 
ties  of  blood  and  interest.  Yet  that  they  loved 
their  new  country  more  than  the  old  appears  in 
an  old  Prayer  Book  bearing  the  inscription, 
"  Bruton  Parish,  1756,"  in  which  the  many  eras- 
ures, marginal  notes  and  changes  in  the  text  show 
a  struggle  in  the  mind  of  some  old  communicant, 
who  pasted  over  the  printed  prayer  for  King 
George  III.,  a  Prayer  for  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  then  a  line  through  the  words, 
"  King  of  Kings,"  substituting  "  Ruler  of  the 
Universe  "  in  the  margin. 

In  1840  so  intent  were  the  authorities  upon 
providing  room  in  the  parish  church  for  a  Sun- 
day school  that  the  whole  interior  was  divided 
up  by  partitions,  regardless  of  all  artistic  effect. 
The  old  pulpit  was  moved  from  its  original  posi- 
tion, pews  were  rearranged,  and  even  the  graves 
of  many  eminent  persons  who  rested  within  the 
sanctuary  were  transferred  beyond  the  walls. 

In  May,  1905,  the  work  of  restoring  the 
church  edifice  to  its  original  form  began  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Bishop  Coadjutor  of  the 


OF   AMERICA  69 

Diocese  of  Southern  Virginia.  The  foundations 
and  roof  timber  were  renewed  and  the  tower 
woodwork  was  restored.  The  bell  presented  to 
the  parish  in  1761  was  replaced  in  the  tower,  and 
a  clock  which  had  originally  hung  in  the  House 
of  Burgesses  was  installed  there.  The  high  pul- 
pit, with  its  overhanging  sounding-board,  again 
stands  in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  church,  the 
chancel  occupies  its  original  location,  and,  with 
the  aisles  of  the  church,  is  paved  with  white 
marble,  in  which  are  stones  appropriately  in- 
scribed to  designate  the  graves  that  had  been  so 
rudely  disturbed. 

The  pews  of  the  church  are  now  arranged  in 
their  former  colonial  style,  and  over  the  Gov- 
ernor's pew  hangs  a  silken  canopy,  while  upon 
the  walls  of  the  church  has  been  affixed  a  tablet 
commemorating  the  various  Colonial  Governors 
who  worshipped  in  the  building.  The  cost  of 
the  restoration  has  been  at  least  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  so  deeply  is  the  old  Bruton 
Parish  Church  imbedded  in  the  affections  of  the 
people  of  Virginia  that  many  years  must  elapse 
before  there  could  be  any  thought  of  the  erection 
of  a  new  church  to  supersede  the  one  dedicated 
in  1715  and  still  so  well  preserved. 


70      .      HISTORIC    CHURCHES 
CHURCH  OF   THE   PILGRIMAGE 

PLYMOUTH,    MASSACHUSETTS 


E£E  many  other  early  churches,  the  Church 
of  the  Pilgrimage  in  Plymouth  formed 
during  the  earliest  days  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony,  had  an  organisation  before  it 
could  erect  a  church  edifice  or  support  a  pastor. 
The  Plymouth  Church,  for  that  matter,  came 
into  possession  of  its  first  house  of  worship  by 
gift,  a  benefaction  which  gave  great  pleasure 
and  encouragement  to  the  congregation.  An  old 
deed  gives  the  North  Side  Town  Square  as  the 
site  of  this  original  meeting-house. 

After  the  death  in  1644  of  Elder  William 
Brewster,  the  first  pastor  of  the  Church  of  the 
Pilgrimage,  its  fortunes  again  reached  so  low  an 
ebb  that  the  discontinuance  of  regular  services 
in  the  little  meeting-house  was  seriously  con- 
sidered. For  the  next  ten  years  or  more  there 
was  difficulty  in  securing  and  retaining  a  minis- 
ter, no  one  being  willing  to  labour  for  such  a 
meagre  stipend  as  the  congregation  felt  itself 
able  to  offer.  The  membership  of  the  church 
in  all  this  time  had  dwindled  down  to  only  forty- 
seven  persons,  whose  "contributions"  could 
scarcely  have  formed  an  imposing  aggregate. 


OF   AMERICA  71 

Then  came  the  "  Great  Awakening,"  when 
the  Reverend  George  Whitefield  preached  twice 
in  the  little  meeting-house  of  the  Pilgrims.  New 
accessions  to  the  membership  were  daily  added, 
and  the  church  flourished  both  materially  and 
spiritually.  In  spite  of  later  differences  of 
opinion  the  members  remained  a  unit.  By  1776 
they  were  able  to  put  up  a  new  meeting-house 
more  generous  in  its  proportions  and  better  able 
to  provide  seating  capacity  for  the  attendants. 
The  old  bell  which  had  hung  in  the  original 
meeting-house  since  1679  was  moved  into  this 
new  edifice  and  the  sexton  still  continued  to  ring 
it  at  nightfall,  as  had  been  the  custom  since  its 
installation. 

The  seats  in  the  new  church  were  arranged 
somewhat  differently  from  the  manner  cus- 
tomary in  New  England  meeting-houses,  inas- 
much as  all  negro  slaves  and  Indians  attending 
worship  occupied  seats  directly  in  front  of  the 
pulpit.  Not  until  fifty  years  later,  when  a  gal- 
lery had  been  added,  were  the  negroes  and  In- 
dians given  seats  further  from  the  preacher. 

Through  the  eighteenth  century  the  number 
of  communicants  in  the  church  constantly  in- 
creased, and  on  October  1,  1801,  one-half  of  its 
membership  was  large  enough  to  form  a  separate 
organisation,  and  adopt  a  creed  differing  in  some 
respects  from  that  of  the  mother  church. 

The  present  edifice  of  the  Church  of  the  Pil- 


72  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

grimage  was  erected  in  1840  on  the  site  of  its 
predecessors,  and  is  larger  than  any  of  the  others 
and  more  substantially  built.  Its  members  still 
increase  and  the  religious  fervour  that  has  actu- 
ated them  from  the  organisation  of  their  church 
has  never  sensibly  waned.  Each  communicant 
manifests  a  pardonable  pride  in  the  history  of  his 
church,  with  its  enviable  record  for  faithfulness 
in  the  service  of  the  Lord. 


OF   AMERICA  73 


ST.    DAVID'S 

RADNOR,  PENNSYLVANIA 

FEW  churches  in  this  country  are  of  such 
ancient  origin  as  to  be  obscure.     Such 
an  one,  however,  is  old  St.  David's  at 
Radnor,  Pennsylvania,  some  sixteen  miles  from 
Philadelphia,  where  it  still  flourishes. 

The  first  mention  of  this  church  in  history  is 
as  early  as  1700,  and  in  that  very  mention  there 
is  a  suggestion  of  a  former  church  built  of  logs 
and  occupying  the  site  of  the  present  stone  build- 
ing. In  this  log  church,  toward  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  settlers  garrisoned 
themselves  against  an  apprehended  attack  from 
Indians.  A  series  of  Historical  Records  of 
Pennsylvania  speaks  of  this  "ancient  Welsh 
Episcopal  Church,  erected  of  logs,  and  sur- 
rounded by  some  fifty  families,"  and  in  a  letter 
written  by  the  Reverend  Evan  Evans,  on  behalf 
of  one  of  the  pioneer  missionaries  of  the  Society 
for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign 
Parts,  dated  June  29, 1719,  is  a  passage  in  proof 
of  services  being  held  at  Radnor  once  each  fort- 
night from  1700.  The  old  Parish  Register,  in 


74  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

the  possession  of  the  St.  David's  Church  Cor- 
poration, also  supports  these  statements.  Other 
letters  too  are  extant,  written  by  this  same  Rev- 
erend Evan  Evans,  who  no  doubt  was  most  ac- 
ceptable to  the  Welsh  settlers  in  and  about  Rad- 
nor, since  he  could  conduct  service  in  their  own 
language  for  them. 

In  1714  the  communicants  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  this  missionary  whereby  they  ob- 
ligated themselves  to  provide  a  suitable  place 
wherein  to  worship  God.  Setting  out  at  once 
to  keep  this  promise,  they  obtained  possession  of 
a  five-acre  plot  of  .ground,  purchased  from  a 
farmer  in  the  vicinity.  One  says  purchased, 
though  no  written  form  of  title  seems  to  have 
been  proffered  and  none  ever  asked.  Singularly 
enough  no  litigation  has  ever  arisen  regarding 
the  title  to  the  property  by  the  Parish  of  St. 
David's,  nor  any  question  made  of  it. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  church  was  laid  May 
9,  1715.  The  building  was  forty  feet  long  by 
twenty-seven  feet  broad,  and  eighteen  in  height. 
According  to  ancient  churchly  custom  every- 
where, it  was  laid  out  east  and  west,  with  the 
main  door  to  the  south.  The  eastern  wall  was 
pierced  by  one  large  window,  and  two  large 
windows  gave  light  in  the  north  and  south  walls. 
The  sharp  pitch  of  the  roof  aided  in  shedding 
winter  snow  or  summer  rains.  An  additional 
door  opened  into  the  west  wall,  but  was  after- 


OF   AMERICA  75 

ward  closed  up.  The  windows  were  pointed,  in 
the  Gothic  style. 

The  interior  of  the  church  remained  unfinished 
for  many  years,  and  being  open  to  the  roof  ex- 
posed the  shingles  and  the  marks  of  the  pioneers' 
axes  upon  the  rafters.  No  provision  was  made 
for  heating  the  church,  nor  even  for  seating  the 
congregation,  and  for  forty  years  there  was  no 
flooring  save  that  provided  by  Mother  Earth. 
Some  idea  of  the  scanty  furnishing  of  the  old 
church  may  be  gathered  from  an  account  of  a 
robbery  that  took  place  in  1740,  in  which  we  find 
mentioned  "  the  breaking  open  of  a  chest  bound 
round  with  iron  hoops  and  the  following  goods 
stole  out  of  the  same; — one  large  folio  Bible; 
one  quarto  Bible;  one  black  gown  made  of  fine 
Spanish  cloth;  one  chalice;  two  plates  and  one 
basin,  being  stamped  Radnor  Church."  These 
vessels,  it  seems,  were  highly  prized  beyond  their 
intrinsic  wrorth,  since  they  were  a  gift  to  the 
parish  from  Queen  Anne  herself.  Fortunately 
the  opportunities  for  thieves  to  escape  with  their 
plunder  were  not  many  in  those  days,  and  the 
"  goods  "  were  all  easily  recovered. 

In  March,  1765,  the  church  got  its  floor,  and 
two  years  later  its  vestry  house,  built  on  the  site 
of  the  present  Sunday  school  building.  In 
1771,  under  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of  the 
father  of  General  Anthony  Wayne,  a  gallery 
was  built  around  three  sides  of  the  interior. 


76  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Pews  were  put  in,  and  rented  out  in  order  to 
secure  the  parish  a  more  ample  income.  Many 
of  these  pews  were  erected  by  private  gentlemen 
for  the  use  of  themselves  and  their  families,  the 
head  of  the  household  actually  taking  title  to  a 
certain  piece  of  ground  within  the  church  walls 
and  constructing  his  pew  in  accordance  with  his 
own  ideas  of  architecture.  Others  were  erected 
by  the  vestry  and  rented  for  the  support  of  the 
church. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  the  rector, 
a  loyalist  Englishman,  declared  his  intention  of 
continuing  to  use  the  liturgy  for  the  King  and 
the  Royal  Family,  but  as  he  had  other  than  Eng- 
lishmen as  a  majority  among  his  parishioners 
he  was  prevented  by  bodily  force  from  conduct- 
ing service  for  a  succession  of  Sabbaths.  He 
gave  in  his  resignation  in  May,  1776,  and  it  was 
promptly  accepted.  The  withdrawal  of  this 
Reverend  Mr.  Currie  under  these  troublous  cir- 
cumstances marks  an  important  change  in  the 
church's  policy.  While  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion lasted,  no  services  were  held  in  St.  David's, 
and  soldiers  from  one  side  or  the  other  alternately 
made  the  little  stone  church  their  rendezvous  anS 
used  it  for  divers  ends.  The  Continental  army, 
camped  in  the  neighbourhood,  cut  out  the  lead 
of  the  diamond-shaped  window  panes  and 
moulded  it  into  bullets.  They  even  laid  hands 
on  the  communion  service  that  had  been  cherished 


OF   AMERICA  77 

so  religiously.  The  English  too  had  their  use 
of  the  church  premises,  for  after  the  Battle  of  the 
Brandywine  no  less  than  sixteen  British  soldiers 
were  interred  in  the  little  graveyard  of  St. 
David's. 

Not  until  the  close  of  the  War,  when  peace 
had  been  fully  established,  was  regular  service 
resumed.  One  rector  served  St.  David's  con- 
jointly with  St.  Peter's  in  the  Great  Valley,  St. 
James'  Church  at  Perkiomen,  and  the  Swedes' 
Church  near  Norristown.  The  selection  of  this 
first  common  rector  was  made  by  the  congrega- 
tion itself,  without  the  intervention  of  the  vestry. 

Between  the  years  1809  and  1815  decided  im- 
provements took  place  in  and  about  St.  David's. 
There  was  a  rebuilding  and  a  rearranging  of 
the  seats,  though  the  high,  straight  backs  were  re- 
tained. The  old  walls  around  the  graveyard 
were  repaired  and  widened  out  so  as  to  take  in  a 
larger  plot  of  ground.  This  outward  improve- 
ment no  doubt  owed  its  origin  to  the  ceremony 
of  removing  to  the  graveyard  the  remains  of 
"  Mad  Anthony  Wayne  "  in  1809,  which  brought 
to  St.  David's  a  large  concourse  of  men  promi- 
nent in  national  affairs,  and  opened  the  eyes 
of  the  parishioners  to  the  unkempt  condition  of 
their  God's  Acre. 

On  July  30,  1820,  occurred  the  first  confirma- 
tion service  mentioned  in  the  church  records.  At 
Christmas  time  of  this  same  year  the  pretty  cus- 


78  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

torn  of  decorating  the  old  church  with 
greens  had  its  origin,  and  within  the  next  few 
years  the  holding  of  "  Convocations  "  was  insti- 
tuted. In  1830  a  portion  of  the  long  gallery 
was  removed,  the  high  backs  were  taken  from  the 
pews,  and  the  arrangement  of  these  so  altered 
that  all  pews  faced  the  pulpit.  At  the  same  time 
the  pulpit  was  placed  in  a  newly  built  chancel, 
and  the  huge  sounding-board  that  had  hung  over 
it  for  so  many  years  was  taken  down.  The  hook 
on  which  this  board  had  been  suspended  for  gen- 
erations is  still  visible  in  the  rafters.  A  new  par- 
ish building  was  also  erected.  Only  a  few  minor 
changes,  however,  have  taken  place  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  old  church,  such  as  more  modern 
arrangements  for  lighting  and  an  enlargement 
of  the  chancel  to  accommodate  more  than  one 
clergyman.  In  the  main,  old  St.  David's  re- 
mains unaltered — a  precious  heritage  to  those 
who  have  worshipped  within  its  walls. 


OF   AMERICA  79 


THE  OLD  DUTCH  CHURCH 

ALBANY.,    NEW    YORK 

THE  first  building  occupied  by  the  Dutch 
Church  in  Albany,  New  York,  was 
erected  soon  after  the  organisation  of 
the  church  body  in  1652.  No  description  now 
exists  regarding  the  nature  of  this  first  building, 
but  the  old  pulpit,  sent  over  from  Holland,  al- 
though no  longer  used,  remains  as  a  memento 
of  it.  The  second  church  building  was  erected 
in  1655  on  the  same  site  as  that  of  the  first  one 
and  before  long,  the  congregation  increasing, 
plans  were  made  for  the  erection  of  a  third  and 
still  more  commodious  building  of  stone.  Its 
foundations  were  laid  around  those  of  the  old 
churches,  and  the  walls  were  carried  up  and  en- 
closed before  the  old  church — that  is,  the  second 
church — was  disturbed.  As  a  result,  only  four 
weeks  elapsed  between  the  last  service  held  in  the 
old  building  and  the  first  exercises  in  the  new. 

This  third  church,  built  in  1715,  rejoiced  in  a 
pyramidal  roof,  a  belfry,  and  a  gaily  painted  and 
ornamented  interior.  The  new  pulpit,  in  actual 
use,  was  octagonal,  made  of  Dutch  oak  so  dark 
as  to  resemble  black  walnut,  and  richly  varnished 


80  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

and  polished,  while  on  the  pulpit  bracket  stood 
the  hourglass  to  time  the  services  strictly.  The 
ceiling  and  front  of  the  gallery  were  painted  sky 
blue.  Low  galleries  surrounded  three  sides  of 
the  interior,  and  a  bell  rope  hung  down 
from  the  roof  into  the  middle  aisle,  when  not  in 
use  being  wound  around  a  post  planted  for  the 
purpose  in  the  centre  of  the  church.  At  eight 
o'clock  every  evening  the  sexton  of  the  church 
rang  the  bell,  notifying  the  residents  of  Albany 
that  supper  time  had  arrived — a  sort  of  curfew 
that  is  still  followed  in  old-time  communities. 

The  windows  in  the  church  were  richly  deco- 
rated with  stained  glass,  displaying  the  coats  of 
arms  of  the  eminent  families  in  the  church, 
among  them  the  Van  Rensselaers.  The  pews 
occupying  the  ground  floor  were  assigned  to  the 
female  portion  of  the  congregation;  the  men 
sat  in  the  galleries.  Three  pews  in  front,  how- 
ever, were  specially  reserved,  one  for  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State,  a  second  for  court  officials, 
and  a  third  for  aged  and  crippled  men  of  the 
congregation. 

In  winter  the  women  used  hot  bricks  or  port- 
able stoves  filled  with  live  hickory  coals  taken 
from  huge  Dutch  fireplaces,  to  keep  their  feet 
warm,  and  it  was  no  unusual  sight  to  see  fifty  or 
seventy-five  coloured  slaves  waiting  at  the  church 
doors  to  relieve  their  mistresses  of  this  parapher- 
nalia after  services.  The  men  sat  with  their 
hats  on  and  carried  muffs.  When  stoves  did 


OF   AMERICA  81 

come  in,  about  1800,  they  were  placed  on  raised 
platforms  as  high  as  the  level  of  the  gallery, 
from  which  bridges  ran  across  to  the  stove  plat- 
forms to  permit  the  sexton  to  attend  to  the  fires. 
Wood  was,  of  course,  the  fuel,  and  since  the 
church  had  no  flooring  the  ashes  were  permitted 
simply  to  fall  to  the  ground  below. 

In  the  midst  of  the  dominie's  sermon  every 
Sunday,  the  deacons  would  rise,  each  with  a  long 
pole  upon  the  end  of  which  was  attached  a  little 
bag  somewhat  like  a  shrimp  net,  and  begin  to 
take  up  the  collection.  To  these  little  bags  were 
attached  small  bells  whose  tinkling  was  supposed 
to  arouse  any  sleeper,  and  prevent  him  from 
making  his  drowsiness  an  excuse  for  not  con- 
tributing his  mite  to  the  poor.  After  the  collec- 
tion had  been  taken  the  dominie  would  again 
resume  his  discourse — a  manner  of  offertory 
which  prevailed  till  1795. 

In  1786  so  many  of  the  congregation  had 
adopted  the  English  language  that  the  question 
of  holding  services  in  that  tongue  was  agitated; 
the  conservative  element  naturally  opposed  the 
change,  and  the  matter  was  compromised  by 
adopting  English  at  one  service  each  Sabbath 
arid  Dutch  at  the  other.  . 

In  1806  this  quaint  old  church  was  demolished, 
and  the  stone  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
building  which  is  still  occupied  regularly  each 
Sunday  by  the  Second  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
in  Albany  to-day. 


82  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


FIRST  CHURCH 

HARTFORD,,   CONNECTICUT 

IN  1632  there  came  to  Cambridge,  Massachu- 
setts, a  band  of  refugees  from  England, 
seeking  a  home  in  the  New  World  where 
they  might  enjoy  the  same  religious  freedom 
that  their  predecessors,  the  Puritans,  had  sought 
before  them.  They  built  a  small  meeting  house 
in  Cambridge,  but  grew  dissatisfied  with  their 
surroundings  before  long,  and  four  years  later 
started  west  and  south  through  the  trackless 
forest,  to  seek  a  country  of  their  own.  Most  of 
these  pilgrims  travelled  on  foot,  driving  their 
cattle  before  them,  and  carrying  the  wife  of  their 
leader,  an  invalid,  on  a  rude  litter.  They  halted 
and  settled  down,  at  the  spot  where  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  now  stands,  and  presently  built  a 
little  meeting-house,  with  a  thatched  roof  and  of 
rude  but  substantial  construction. 

The  removal  of  these  settlers  to  Connecticut 
was  vigorously  opposed  by  the  Massachusetts 
authorities,  who  still  held  them  to  be  subjects  of 
the  Mother  Church.  The  Dutch  in  New  Am- 
sterdam equally  took  offence  at  this  first  effort 
at  "Expansion,"  while  daily  the  new  colonists 


First  Church,  Hartford,  Connecticut 


OF   AMERICA  83 

were  in  danger  of  their  lives  from  hostile  In- 
dians. To  provide  better  defences  against  these 
latter,  the  settlers  of  Hartford,  Windsor  and 
Wethersfield  met  in  compliance  with  the  request 
of  the  Reverend  Thomas  Hooker,  the  pastor  of 
the  little  Hartford  flock  and  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable of  men.  Each  of  the  three  societies 
represented  was  heartily  in  accord  in  hatred  of 
foreign  domination ;  each  sought  to  worship  God 
in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
sciences, and  they  met  gladly  to  make  joint  pro- 
vision for  their  spiritual  and  bodily  well-being. 
The  broad  mind  of  the  Reverend  Thomas 
Hooker  grasped  the  true  idea  of  separation  be- 
tween church  and  state,  though  it  had  not  yet 
been  promulgated  in  either  the  New  or  the  Old 
World,  and  under  his  guidance  in  that  little 
meeting-house  of  the  First  Church  of  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  occurred  the  first  and  original 
"  declaration  of  independence  "  ever  signed  in 
America.  It  was  indeed  one  of  the  first  written 
Constitutions,  a  remarkable  document,  which 
declared  the  colonists  of  Hartford,  Windsor  and 
Wethersfield  independent  of  all  authority  save 
that  of  God.  By  implication,  independence 
from  Massachusetts  authority  was  meant, 
though  no  mention  was  made  of  any  individual 
sovereignty.  No  restrictions  were  made  regard- 
ing suffrage  on  civic  questions,  as  was  the  case 
in  all  the  Massachusetts  settlements,  but  each 


84  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

man  was  regarded  as  endowed  by  his  Creator 
with  inalienable  rights — the  right  to  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 

So  broad  and  liberal-minded  was  the  platform 
of  these  "  Fundamental  Orders  of  Connecticut," 
as  the  document  was  called,  that  it  withstood  all 
attempts  at  overthrow,  and  was  indeed  the  solid 
foundation  upon  which  later  the  Constitution  of 
the  State  was  raised.  When  the  building  for 
the  little  First  Church  of  Hartford  was  built  in 
1638,  this  same  leader,  Mr.  Hooker,  had  declared 
that  "  the  foundation  of  authority  is  laid  first 
by  the  free  consent  of  the  people,"  and  so  it  was. 

Many  of  the  oldest  records  of  this  meeting- 
house have  been  destroyed,  and  therefore  much 
of  its  early  history  is  lost  to  us.  That  in  the 
construction  of  the  third  church  edifice  slave  la- 
bour was  employed  is  one  of  the  items  gleaned 
from  one  source  or  another.  This  third  struc- 
ture, which  was  dedicated  December  30,  1739, 
had  many  innovations,  such  as  weights  in  the 
windows  and  fine  window  hangings.  These  and 
the  gorgeous  wainscoting  must  have  contrasted 
oddly  with  the  utter  lack  of  stoves,  and  the  old- 
time  hourglass  in  its  place  on  a  bracket  beside 
the  pulpit. 

Directly  in  front  of  the  high  pulpit  and  below 
it  stood  the  "Deacon's  Table."  No  contribu- 
tion box  was  passed  to  "  take  up  the  collection," 
but  instead  the  members  of  the  congregation 


OF   AMERICA  85 

filed  in  front  of  this  Deacon's  Table,  placing  in 
its  box  their  individual  contributions.  Unlike 
other  New  England  churches,  there  was  no  allow- 
ance made  in  the  rulings  of  the  church  for  the 
selection  by  the  rich  or  powerful  of  the  better 
seats  in  the  meeting-house.  Everybody  lived  up 
to  the  doctrine  preached  by  the  Reverend 
Thomas  Hooker,  that  in  the  sight  of  God  "  all 
men  were  equal." 

In  1767  the  church  was  struck  by  lightning 
while  services  were  being  held.  One  young 
woman  was  killed,  and  a  number  of  the  members 
were  badly  injured.  Lightning  rods,  or  "pro- 
tectors "  as  they  were  called,  were  then  provided, 
in  spite  of  many  adverse  comments  regarding 
this  exceeding  lack  of  trust  in  Providence. 

In  1807  the  present  edifice  was  erected,  and 
provision  was  made  for  the  use  of  stoves.  So 
many  of  the  conservative  members  of  the  congre- 
gation still  carried  their  "  foot-stoves  "  to  church 
that  finally  an  order  was  officially  given  that  any 
foot-stoves  found  lighted  in  the  meeting-house 
after  service  had  begun  should  be  carried  out  by 
the  sexton. 

The  influence  of  the  little  First  Church  of 
Hartford  was  more  far-reaching  than  that  of 
any  other  church  within  the  boundaries  of  Con- 
necticut. The  early  adoption  of  the  platform 
of  perfect  equality  was  remarkable ;  had  Thomas 
Hooker  proclaimed  in  old  England  so  boldly  his 


86  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

belief  that  the  "  privileges  of  election  belonged 
to  the  people  "  he  might  have  been  burned  at 
the  stake,  his  church  itself  supplying  the  fag- 
gots. Equally  remarkable  is  the  fact  that  all 
the  rights  then  claimed  were  granted  in  a  charter 
given  by  Charles  I.  It  was  this  famous  charter 
that  so  mysteriously  disappeared  in  Hartford 
when  demanded  by  the  Governor  of  the  State, 
Sir  Edmund  Andros. 


OF   AMERICA  87 


CATEDRAL  DE  LA  VIRGEN   MARIA 
DE  LA  CONCEPCION 

HAVANA,    CUBA 

THE  cathedral  in  Havana  to  which  the 
remains  of  Christopher  Columbus  were 
brought    almost    three    hundred    years 
after  his  death  in  Valladolid,  Spain,  in  1506,  de- 
serves an  honoured  place  among  the  churches  of 
America. 

The  Catedral  de  la  Virgen  Maria  de  la  Con- 
cepcion  was  erected  in  1724.  It  is  a  large,  quaint 
structure  with  a  pillared  front,  a  tower  at  each 
angle,  and  a  crumbly,  moss-grown  surface.  It 
is  not  beautiful,  either  from  an  architectural  or 
an  aesthetic  standpoint,  and  could  scarcely  be 
called  imposing  were  it  not  for  its  age  and  the 
spiritual  grandeur  which  surrounds  it.  The  edi- 
fice that  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  sheltered 
the  remains  of  the  Great  Discoverer  rather  pos- 
sesses a  moral  association  than  any  majesty  of 
architecture.  The  interior  nevertheless  is  finer 
than  the  outward  appearance  would  lead  a  visitor 
to  expect.  The  lofty  dome  and  the  vaulted  roof 
are  supported  by  tall  pillars  of  marble  and  there 
is  some  fine  masonry  in  divers  colours,  although 


88  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

the  dominant  hue  is  a  sunny  yellow.  The  walls 
are  covered  with  rich  frescoes  whose  colouring 
has  been  somewhat  dimmed  by  time. 

The  floor  is  of  variegated  marble  and  is  unen- 
cumbered by  seats,  the  worshippers  kneeling  in 
the  body  of  the  church.  The  high  altar  is  a 
magnificent  piece  of  workmanship,  consisting 
of  a  base  of  various  kinds  of  marble  harmoni- 
ously blended,  and  supporting  a  dome  and  pillars 
of  porphyry,  under  which  is  a  statue  commemo- 
rative of  the  Immaculate  Conception.  Behind 
the  altar  is  the  bishop's  throne,  and  here  and  there 
around  the  walls  are  confessionals  with  appro- 
priate pictures. 

The  side  altars  are  of  solid  mahogany,  the  an- 
cient "  Spanish  wood,"  richly  carved  and  gilded, 
and  there  are  some  fine  paintings  by  old  Span- 
ish masters,  some  of  them  used  as  altar  pieces. 
One  of  these  is  said  to  be  a  genuine  Murillo. 
Among  other  objects  of  art  carefully  preserved 
by  the  church  is  a  painting  on  glass  said  to  have 
been  painted  in  Italy  about  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  to  have  been  blessed  by 
Pope  Sixtus  IV. 

A  mural  tablet  in  the  choir  on  the  left  of  the 
high  altar  indicates  the  place  where  the  bones  of 
Columbus  long  rested  after  their  various  jour- 
neyings  to  and  from  Spain.  This  tablet  is  of 
pure  white  marble,  most  sacredly  preserved,  and 
bears  in  high  relief  a  bust  of  the  great  Genoese, 


OF   AMERICA  89 

with  nautical  instruments  grouped  beneath  it. 
Below  these  is  an  inscription,  which  translated 
literally  reads: 

"  O  remains  and  image  of  the  great  Colon, 
Endure  for  a  thousand  ages,  guarded  in  this  urn 
And  in  the  remembrance  of  our  nation." 

Unfortunately  for  a  wish  so  mightily  ex- 
pressed, the  bones  of  Columbus,  doomed  as  they 
were  to  wandering,  were  permitted  to  rest  within 
the  walls  of  the  Catedral  de  la  Virgen  Maria  de 
la  Concepcion  for  only  a  little  more  than  a  cen- 
tury. They  were  removed  to  Spain  in  1898, 
after  Cuba  had  obtained  her  freedom  from 
Spanish  rule. 


90  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


CHRIST   CHURCH 

ALEXANDRIA,  VIRGINIA 

A"  THOUGH  the  number  of  churches  in 
which  the  Father  of  His  Country  is  said 
to  have  worshipped,  and  of  pews  which 
he  is  said  to  have  occupied,  seems  without  end, 
yet  the  fact  remains  that  in  the  building  of  Christ 
Church  in  Alexandria  he  was  actually  and  in- 
tensely interested,  and  gave  liberally  to  its  build- 
ing fund.  In  the  earlier  days  in  Virginia  houses 
of  worship  were  few  and  far  between.  It  was 
not  until  1765  that  it  was  found  expedient  to 
create  the  parish  of  Fairfax,  of  which,  for  the 
next  five  years,  George  Washington  was  an 
active  vestryman.  Money  was  not  plentiful,  and 
in  order  to  secure  funds  for  the  erection  of  the 
church  the  vestry  was  obliged  to  impose  upon 
the  parish  a  tax  of  some  thirty-one  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco,  by  the  sale  of  which  the 
church  was  built. 

The  site  chosen  was  at  the  head  of  Cameron 
Street,  on  a  plot  shaded  by  forest  trees,  an  ideal 
spot  to  set  aside  as  God's  acre.  The  architect 
who  drew  the  plans  for  the  building  was  of  the 


Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  Virginia 


OF   AMERICA  91 

family  of  the  great  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
whose  wonderful  cathedral  of  St.  Paul's  in  Lon- 
don had  already  given  him  an  immortal  fame. 
The  contract  for  the  erection  of  the  new  church 
was  assigned  in  1767,  the  sum  agreed  upon  being 
about  three  thousand  dollars — a  large  sum  of 
money  at  that  time.  Five  years  later,  from 
some  cause  now  inexplicable,  the  contractor  had 
failed  to  make  good  his  promise,  and  Colonel 
John  Carlyle  agreed  to  complete  the  building 
for  an  additional  one  thousand  and  seventy  dol- 
lars. One  year  later,  on  February  27,  1773,  he 
delivered  the  church  into  the  hands  of  the  vestry- 
men, completed.  On  that  same  day  George 
Washington  purchased  for  himself  and  his 
family  a  pew,  paying  almost  one  hundred  dol- 
lars for  it.  He  also  presented  to  the  church  the 
handsome  brass  chandelier,  with  its  numerous 
crystal  pendants,  that  still  hangs  from  the  old 
ceiling. 

The  completed  church  was  a  handsome  build- 
ing in  the  simple  Colonial  style.  Built  of  brick 
and  roofed  with  shingles  of  juniper,  it  still 
stands  to-day — a  landmark  in  Alexandria.  Un- 
til 1812  it  had  neither  chimney  nor  stove,  foot- 
stoves  furnishing  the  only  warmth  to  the  un- 
daunted worshippers  of  those  early  days. 

A  study  of  the  church's  finances  is  interesting. 
The  old  records  show  the  collection  of  fines  "  for 
killing  deer  out  of  season  "  and  for  "  hunting 


92  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

on  the  Sabbath,"  money  which  was  employed  in 
alleviating  the  condition  of  the  poor,  the  lame, 
and  the  blind,  as  well  as  in  burying  them  when 
they  shook  off  their  mortal  ills.  Choice  Oro- 
noko  tobacco  had  played  an  important  part  in  the 
raising  of  funds  for  the  erection  of  the  building, 
and  the  clergyman's  salary  was  also  paid  in  the 
same  legal  tender.  The  purchase  of  land  for 
a  rectory,  also  through  tobacco,  was  made  in 
1770,  the  "  glebe  "  embracing  some  five  hundred 
acres.  Three  years  later  the  vestry  were  able 
to  build  a  rectory,  "  with  a  dairy,  meat  house, 
barn,  stable  and  corn  house." 

Although  forbidden,  in  accordance  with  the 
times,  to  take  part  in  public  service  in  the  church, 
women  seem  to  have  been  in  unusually  high 
esteem  there,  for  we  find  that  one  Susannah  Ed- 
wards was  chosen  the  sexton  of  the  church,  and 
performed  her  duties  so  faithfully  that  her  suc- 
cessor also  was  a  woman. 

Though  with  the  exception  of  Mount  Vernon, 
no  extant  building  in  this  country  is  more  closely 
associated  with  George  Washington,  Christ 
Church  has  other  associations  too.  In  its  register 
is  found  the  record  of  the  baptism  and  confirma- 
tion of  General  Robert  E.  Lee.  During  the 
great  war  in  which  General  Lee  played  so  im- 
portant a  part  the  Federal  troops  occupied  Alex- 
andria, and  the  church  was  held  by  the  military 
authorities.  Many  of  the  more  prominent  com- 


OF   AMERICA  93 

municants  fled  within  the  Federal  lines,  and 
a  large  mound  in  the  churchyard  to  this  day 
marks  the  resting-place  of  some  thirty-four 
Confederate  soldiers  who  died  in  the  Federal 
hospitals  in  Alexandria. 


94  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   GEORGE'S   CHURCH 

NEWBURGH.,    NEW    YORK 

SCATTERED  by  fierce  religious  persecu- 
tion and  beggared  in  purse,  yet  with 
their  religious  ardour  still  unquenched, 
aided  by  good  Queen  Anne  of  England,  many 
Lutherans  came  to  America  from  the  Palatinate. 
Though  absolute  paupers,  they  were  rich  in  moral 
character,  and  they  brought  from  their  home  on 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine  a  love  of  liberty,  both 
political  and  religious,  that  planted  the  germs  of 
independence  in  the  region  about  the  Hudson 
River,  and  made  it,  in  a  moral  sense  as  well  as 
a  physical,  the  Rhine  of  America. 

The  patent  granted  these  humble  Lutherans, 
known  as  "  the  Palatine  Parish  by  Quassaick," 
embraced  some  forty  acres  of  land  for  high- 
ways and  five  hundred  for  a  glebe.  This  was 
donated  to  the  First  Lutheran  Church  of  New- 
burgh,  and  lies  to-day  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 
The  first  minister  who  served  this  people  was  the 
Reverend  Joshua  de  Kockerthal,  who  came  with 
the  first  band  in  1707,  and  led  them  through 
many  vicissitudes  until  he  was  called  to  his 
heavenly  reward  in  1719. 

Upon  his  return  from  one  of  his  voyages  to 


OF    AMERICA  95 

Europe  in  the  interests  of  his  flock  he  brought 
with  him  a  bell  for  the  steeple  of  the  church, 
whenever  they  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  erect 
one;  this  was  a  gift  from  Queen  Anne  and  was 
most  gratefully  cherished  by  her  proteges.  Their 
first  church,  dedicated  in  1730,  was  about  twenty 
feet  square,  without  floor  or  chimney.  The  roof 
slanted  up  from  each  of  the  four  sides,  and  upon 
the  apex  so  formed  a  small  cupola  was  con- 
structed to  contain  Queen  Anne's  bell. 

The  congregation  occupied  this  building  until 
1747,  when  many  rumours  reached  the  settle- 
ment of  the  excellent  farming  and  fertile  soil 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  a  goodly  portion  of  the 
parish  migrated  to  that  State.  Their  successors 
and  those  left  behind  in  attendance  at  the  little 
chapel  were  of  English  and  Scotch  descent,  and 
being  in  the  majority  introduced  the  service  of 
the  Church  of  England.  From  July  19,  1747, 
for  some  twenty-five  years,  the  Reverend  Heze- 
kiah  Watkins  of  the  Church  of  England  con- 
ducted service  regularly  in  the  little  church.  The 
few  remaining  Lutherans  in  the  community  did 
not  give  up  without  a  struggle,  but  in  the  end 
succumbed,  and  after  considerable  trouble  be- 
tween the  members  of  the  two  organisations,  left 
the  Episcopalians  in  possession  of  the  edifice. 

On  July  30,  1770,  a  charter  of  incorporation 
for  St.  George's  Parish  was  obtained  from  King 
George  III.  of  England,  and  all  went  well  till 


96  HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

the  Revolution.  The  troubles  of  good  church- 
men at  that  time  were  most  grievous,  since  even 
the  name  of  "  Churchman  "  became  synonymous 
in  the  popular  mind  with  "  Tory  "  or  "  Loyal- 
ist." By  the  end  of  the  war  the  communicants 
of  St.  George's  were  either  driven  out  of  the 
country,  or  so  reduced  financially  that  they  were 
powerless  to  undertake  the  repairing  and  reopen- 
ing of  their  little  church  without  assistance  from 
their  more  fortunate  brethren  in  other  sections 
of  the  State.  Happily  the  church  building  was 
left  them,  practically  unharmed,  except  for 
broken  window-panes  and  other  minor  injuries, 
and  in  1790  the  parish  was  able  to  secure  the  serv- 
ices of  the  Reverend  G.  H.  Speirin,  who  also 
taught  in  the  glebe  school,  in  order  to  get  a  bet- 
ter living  than  the  meagre  purses  of  the  com- 
municants of  the  parish  afforded  as  rector's 
salary.  He  served  the  parish  for  two  years, 
and  after  his  acceptance  of  a  call  to  the  parish 
of  Christ  Church  in  Poughkeepsie,  no  regular 
rector  served  St.  George's  until  1816.  By 
that  time  the  parish  had  recovered  from  the 
financial  straits  into  which  the  Revolution  had 
thrown  it,  and  had  secured  the  means  to  erect 
a  new  church  building  and  instal  another 
rector.  Their  choice  fell  upon  the  Reverend 
John  Brown,  who  ministered  to  them  almost 
three  score  years  and  ten  before  he  went  to 
his  reward.  With  his  advent  into  the  church 


OF   AMERICA  97 

came  prosperity.  A  new  church  edifice  was 
erected  in  1819,  and  several  years  later  galleries 
were  built  around  three  sides  of  the  building, 
and  an  organ  was  procured.  In  1834  the  church 
was  materially  enlarged,  a  steeple  was  added,  and 
a  bell  hung  in  the  belfry.  In  1853  numerous 
changes  were  made  and  the  church  building  was 
still  further  enlarged;  a  Sunday  school  house 
was  built  and  a  new  organ  was  set  up. 

With  all  these  enlargements,  still  the  number 
of  communicants  increased,  and  to  accommodate 
them  the  vestry  purchased  and  fitted  up  another 
building,  which  was  consecrated  on  May  10, 
1859,  as  St.  John's  Chapel.  St.  George's  Mis- 
sion was  opened  in  1873,  and  a  chapel  built  for 
it  also  in  1880.  In  1874,  the  Ladies'  Guild  un- 
dertook the  formation  of  a  home  and  hospital, 
an  enterprise  which  was  carried  to  a  successful 
issue,  the  buildings  being  dedicated  on  January 
5,  1876,  under  the  title  of  St.  Luke's  Home 
and  Hospital.  In  1880  and  1881  St.  George's 
was  remodelled,  and  the  pews  made  more  com- 
fortable and  modern;  the  chancel  was  decorated 
and  a  beautiful  window  placed  in  it.  Three  years 
later  the  parish  added  a  rectory  to  its  possessions. 
A  spirit  of  enterprise  has  always  existed  in  St. 
George's,  and  of  interest  in  the  work  of  the  Mas- 
ter, while  great  harmony  prevails  among  the 
parishioners,  and  pride  in  the  church  to  which 
they  belong. 


HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   LUKE'S 

SMITHFIELD^    VIRGINIA 

IN  the  County  of  Isle  of  Wight  in  Virginia, 
some  ten  miles  distant  from  Fortress  Mon- 
roe, stands  one  of  the  most  ancient  churches 
of  the  Old  Dominion.    It  is  still  surrounded  by 
the  stately  old  trees  of  the  forest,  each  of  them 
noble  in  age  and  nature,  far  overtopping  the 
Norman  tower  of  old  St.  Luke's  in  Smithfield. 

St.  Luke's  was  erected  in  1632,  many  well- 
authenticated  records,  as  well  as  the  imprint  in 
the  bricks  in  the  walls,  vouching  for  this  date. 
The  east  window  of  the  church  is  composed  of 
no  less  than  seventeen  distinct  windows,  sepa- 
rated from  one  another  by  brick  mullions.  This 
edifice  was  used  as  a  house  of  worship  for  over 
two  hundred  years,  when  the  finances  of  the  par- 
ish ran  below  the  expense  of  keeping  the  church 
in  repair  and  maintaining  service.  Moreover, 
many  of  the  families  of  tne  early  parishioners 
were  widely  scattered,  and  the  number  of  com- 
municants was  much  reduced,  until  in  1836  the 
church  was  finally  abandoned.  During  the  fol- 
lowing fifty  years  the  old  building  apparently 


OF    AMERICA  99 

fell  a  prey  to  relic-hunters,  who  bore  away  almost 
every  removable  portion  of  it,  so  that  when  the 
Reverend  Dr.  David  Burr,  the  senior  assistant 
rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Epiphany  at  Wash- 
ington, visited  the  parish  in  1887,  scarcely  any 
portion  of  the  original  church  remained  save  the 
solid  walls. 

Thanks  to  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  Dr. 
Burr,  the  restoration  of  the  old  building  was 
undertaken.  The  pride  of  native  Virginians,  es- 
pecially those  residing  in  Isle  of  Wight  County, 
was  aroused,  and  when  the  restoration  was  com- 
pleted the  little  church  at  Smithfield  enjoyed  a 
beauty  that  not  only  harmonised  with  its  pristine 
glory,  but  in  a  number  of  features  exceeded  any 
which  the  finances  of  the  original  parishioners 
could  possibly  have  afforded. 

Among  the  new  features  added  were  twelve 
memorial  windows.  One  was  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  George  Washington;  another  to  that 
of  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  while  still  others 
commemorated  the  names  and  deeds  of  Captain 
Bridges,  the  original  builder  of  the  edifice,  the 
Reverend  Mr.  Hubbard,  the  last  Colonial  rector; 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh;  Captain  John  Smith;  John 
Rolfe,  who  married  Pocahontas;  the  first  four 
Episcopal  Bishops  of  Virginia — Bishops  Madi- 
son, Moore,  Meade,  and  Johns ;  while  the  twelfth 
was  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Blair,  the  founder  of  the  College  of  William 


100          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

and  Mary,  the  alma  mater  of  President  Jeffer- 
son and  President  Monroe. 

Not  only  did  the  residents  of  Virginia  delight 
in  adding  their  mites  to  the  restoration  fund,  but 
contributions  flowed  in  from  people  of  other  de- 
nominations as  well,  and  from  every  section  of 
the  country,  no  less  than  twenty-one  States  being 
represented  in  the  list. 

An  interesting  feature  in  this  work  of  restora- 
tion was  the  incorporation  into  the  building  of 
some  two  thousand  of  the  bricks  that  had  been 
part  of  the  walls  of  the  ancient  Colonial  church 
at  Jamestown  in  Virginia  years  before.  The 
pulpit,  as  well  as  the  sounding-board,  with  the 
carved  oak  communion  table  and  altar,  were  me- 
morials from  the  families  of  early  parishioners 
who  had  become  residents  of  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania.  In  order  to  embody  in  the  edifice 
all  that  was  possible  of  the  original  church  build- 
ing in  its  restoration,  the  chancel  railing  was 
constructed  from  portions  of  the  original  roof, 
which  had  finally  fallen  in. 

In  short,  all  the  traditions  and  style  of  the 
original  structure  were  carefully  followed,  and 
the  present  church  is  a  most  interesting  example 
of  early  church  architecture  in  the  Southern 
Colonies. 


OF  AMERICA        161 


THE  REFORMED  NETHER 
DUTCH  CHURCH 

SCHENECTADY,    NEW    YORK 

AENT  VON  CURLEER,  who  pur- 
chased the  "Great  Flatts"  from  the 
Mohawk  chiefs  in  1661,  is  regarded  as 
the  founder  of  Schenectady.  After  the  deed  for 
the  land  had  been  signed  by  these  Indian  chiefs, 
he  removed  to  his  new  possessions  in  company 
with  some  fifty  hardy  Dutch  pioneers  and  their 
families,  forming  a  little  Dutch  republic  whose 
voters  were  one  in  their  religious  belief.  The 
freeholders  in  this  new  settlement  constituted 
their  own  official  and  spiritual  authority,  and 
from  their  number  they  elected  annually  five 
trustees  for  the  purpose  of  "  maintaining  good 
order  and  advancing  their  settlement."  They 
housed  themselves  promptly  in  rude  log  struc- 
tures and  effected  their  church  organisation  with 
the  first  election  of  elders  and  deacons  in  1662. 
When  in  1664  the  government  of  New  York 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  both  settle- 
ment and  church  government  continued  placidly 
without  change. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  members  had  been  un- 


102          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

able  to  support  a  minister  of  their  own,  depend- 
ing entirely  upon  travelling  missionaries.  In 
1674j  however,  they  erected  their  first  rude  struc- 
ture and  dedicated  it  to  the  worship  of  God. 
The  occasion  was  one  of  great  rejoicing  among 
the  members  of  the  Reformed  Nether  Dutch 
Church,  since  they  were  no  longer  compelled, 
if  they  desired  to  attend  church  service,  to  travel 
the  twenty  miles  that  lay  between  themselves 
and  Albany. 

This  new  little  church  was  erected  at  the  south 
end  of  Church  Street,  near  the  head  of  Water 
Street,  and  was  substantially  built  although  ut- 
terly devoid  of  ornament.  Neither  was  much 
provision  made  for  comfort,  since  the  building 
had  neither  flooring  nor  means  of  heating.  From 
a  lofty  pulpit  the  minister  sounded  forth  his 
warnings  to  the  congregation,  who  literally  sat 
at  his  feet.  The  building  had  a  gallery  which 
was  constructed,  not  with  the  idea  of  providing 
additional  seating  capacity,  but  because  from  its 
height  a  better  watch  could  be  kept  for  attacks 
by  hostile  Indians.  The  windows  were  high  in 
the  walls  and  built  after  the  manner  of  the  loop- 
holes of  a  fort. 

It  was  a  memorable  day  in  the  history  of  the 
little  community  when  the  Reverend  Petrus 
Thesschenmacher,  a  graduate  of  the  University 
of  Utrecht,  was  installed  in  1684  as  the  regular 
domine  of  the  Schenectady  Church;  so  great 


OF    AMERICA  103 

an  event  in  their  history  that  the  year  1684  has 
ever  since  been  known  among  them  as  "  the  year 
of  grace."  From  that  year,  too,  date  the  regular 
appointment  of  elders  and  the  keeping  of  the 
records  of  the  church.  The  ordinances  and 
forms  of  worship  prescribed  were  considered 
rather  as  privileges  than  duties  and  were  per- 
formed according  to  the  principle  that  "unto 
whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  him  shall  much  be 
required."  In  consequence,  the  higher  the  social 
or  official  standing  of  an  individual,  the  more 
circumspectly  was  it  necessary  for  him  to  con- 
duct himself,  both  in  his  daily  walk  and  conver- 
sation and  in  his  discharge  of  his  religious  duties. 
Until  the  installation  of  this,  their  first  regular 
minister,  the  congregation  had  received  quarterly 
visits  from  the  Reverend  Gideon  Schaets  of 
Albany,  who  at  these  periods  baptised  and  con- 
firmed the  young  in  the  Schenectady  congrega- 
tion, administering  also  the  Lord's  Supper.  Mar- 
riage among  these  pioneers  was  regarded  as  a 
civil  function  which  the  resident  magistrate 
might  perform,  according  to  the  ancient  Dutch 
custom.  Upon  the  installation  of  the  Reverend 
Mr.  Thesschenmacher  a  school  was  also  opened, 
in  which  he  taught  the  children  of  all  settlers  in 
the  vicinity;  and  since  the  idea  of  free  schools 
had  not  yet  been  entertained  the  new  minister 
was  able  by  means  of  this  tuition  to  earn  the 
better  part  of  his  living. 


104          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  these  humble  farmers 
had  naught  but  what  they  earned  by  the  labour 
of  their  own  hands,  the  church  as  early  as  1681 
had  a  fund  for  the  support  of  the  poor  amount- 
ing to  three  thousand  guilders.  To  this  sum 
still  another  thousand  guilders  were  added  by 
1690,  when  the  barbarities  of  King  William's 
War  utterly  destroyed  the  little  settlement  at 
Schenectady,  driving  the  survivors  to  more 
thickly  settled  portions  of  New  York.  The  little 
Reformed  Nether  Dutch  Church  was  burned, 
and  its  minister,  the  Reverend  Petrus,  mysteri- 
ously disappeared  and  was  never  seen  afterward. 

Thoroughly  alarmed  for  the  safety  of  their 
families,  many  of  the  farmers  who  had  com- 
prised the  original  settlement  in  and  about 
Schenectady  decided  not  to  return,  but  to  re- 
main in  places  of  greater  security.  The  church 
organisation  in  consequence  languished  until  the 
beginning  of  the  next  century,  when  the  Rever- 
end Thomas  Brower  came  over  from  Holland 
to  make  his  home  among  the  people  of  Schenec- 
tady. He  served  the  congregation  for  over  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  materially  increased  its 
membership.  In  1703,  almost  immediately  after 
his  arrival,  another  church  edifice  was  erected, 
which  fulfilled  the  requirements  of  the  congre- 
gation for  eighty  years,  until  a  new  structure 
replaced  it  in  1814.  The  present  church  building 
was  erected  in  1862,  from  plans  prepared  by  a 


OF   AMERICA  105 

son  of  the  Right  Reverend  Horatio  Potter,  then 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  New  York. 

The  present  communicants  of  the  church  still 
maintain  the  same  form  of  church  government 
and  the  same  articles  of  faith  that  were  so  highly 
cherished  by  their  forefathers  when  they  first 
came  into  the  wilderness  as  fur  traders  in  1661. 
The  only  innovation  that  has  been  introduced  is 
the  adoption  at  alternate  services  in  the  church 
of  the  English  and  the  Dutch  languages. 


106          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


SAN    CARLOS    BORROMEO 

MONTEREY,     CALIFORNIA 

TO  write  even  a  skeleton  history  of  the 
work  accomplished  by  the  Spanish  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith 
would  demand  several  volumes ;  one  can  therefore 
only  give  a  leaf  here  and  there  of  the  methods 
they  employed  and  the  special  points  they  cov- 
ered. 

More  than  one  hundred  years  before  the  es- 
tablishment of  any  Protestant  Church  on  the 
eastern  shores  of  our  country,  there  were  in 
existence  numerous  old  Catholic  Missions  scat- 
tered throughout  what  is  now  New  Mexico, 
Arizona  and  California,  some  of  which  are  in 
existence  to-day. 

From  Mexico  these  Jesuit  priests  travelled, 
teaching  and  preaching  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  they  went.  Many  of  them  fell  victims 
to  hunger  and  thirst  in  the  deserts,  while  still 
others  became  the  prey  of  wild  beasts  and  sav- 
age men.  One  of  those  who  escaped  death  en- 
tered through  the  shoals  that  guard  so  carefully 
and  hide  so  sYJfully  the  Bay  of  Monterey.  In 


OF   AMERICA  107 

his  little  frail  boat  he  sailed  up  to  the  head  of  the 
bay,  landed,  and,  selecting  two  stately  oaks  near 
the  shore,  he  nailed  to  them  a  wooden  cross,  be- 
neath which  he  said  mass.  Later,  to  provide 
shelter  from  inclement  weather,  a  little  thatched 
hut  was  built  close  to  these  oak  trees.  Journey- 
ing on,  Caspar  de  Portala  sought  other  and 
more  populous  sections  where  he  might  make 
converts,  finally  returning  to  Mexico,  where  he 
made  his  elaborate  report  to  the  Church. 

On  the  missionary,  Portala,  that  journey  up 
the  Bay  of  Monterey  made  no  special  impres- 
sion, and  as  the  years  passed  on,  the  exact  site  of 
this  Bay  could  not  be  located.  In  1768,  how- 
ever, another  member  of  the  Jesuit  Brotherhood 
travelled  over  the  first  portion  of  the  route  taken 
by  Portala,  and  by  chance  entering  this  same 
Bay  of  Monterey  sailed  to  its  northern  extrem- 
ity. Here,  on  landing,  he  found  the  two  oaks 
described  by  Portala,  with  the  wooden  cross  still 
nailed  to  them.  Additional  evidence  of  the  work 
of  Portala  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  years 
earlier  was  found  in  the  little  thatched  hut  close 
to  the  twin  oaks,  designating  the  spot  where  the 
standard  of  Christ  was  first  set  up  in  what  is 
now  the  State  of  California.  Overjoyed,  Padre 
Junipero  Serra,  with  his  followers,  knelt  in  a 
thanksgiving  service  beneath  the  wooden  cross, 
and  there  it  wras  decided  to  found  the  Mission  of 
San  Carlos  Borromeo  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio 


108          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Carmelo.  With  that  ability  which  the  practical 
turn  of  his  mind  gave  him,  Junipero  oversaw 
and  directed  every  portion  of  the  work  of  con- 
struction of  the  buildings  which  were  to  consti- 
tute the  first  Mission  Church  in  our  country. 
A  line  of  high,  strong  posts  was  planted  close 
together,  enclosing  a  rectangular  portion  of  land 
some  seventy  by  one  hundred  and  thirteen  feet; 
within  this  a  simple  log  house  was  erected.  For 
want  of  nails  the  outer  palisade  failed  to  possess 
that  upper  fastening  that  would  naturally  bind 
the  poles  together  at  the  top  and  render  the  en- 
closure the  more  secure  and  durable.  To  obviate 
this  difficulty  Junipero  had  the  inside  of  the  pali- 
sade plastered  with  mud  and  clay,  as  well  as  the 
walls  and  roof  of  the  structure  erected  within 
the  stockade  for  the  use  of  the  missionaries.  The 
building  was  twenty-one  by  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  in  dimensions  and  divided  into  seven 
rooms.  One  of  these  was  set  aside  for  worship, 
others  as  living  rooms  for  the  priests  and  such 
converts  as  they  might  make,  while  still  others 
were  used  as  a  storehouse.  Naturally,  at  first, 
these  remained  empty,  but  Junipero  provided  for 
the  future  material  as  well  as  for  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  his  neophytes.  He  taught  them  the 
cultivation  of  the  land,  and  the  fruit  of  this 
instruction  was  placed  in  the  storehouses  he  had 
provided  when  the  Mission  was  first  founded. 
The  little  church  was  completed,  even  to  the 


OF   AMERICA  109 

interior  whitewashing,  a  tedious  process  at  that 
time,  and  the  first  mass  was  said  within  its  walls 
the  day  it  was  dedicated,  June  3,  1770.  Adjoin- 
ing the  larger  structure,  a  smaller  one  was  soon 
after  erected  to  serve  as  a  kitchen,  and  this,  as 
well  as  the  large  building,  was  roofed  with  a 
plaster  made  from  mud  and  clay.  This  roof  did 
not  prove  a  success  and  was  soon  replaced  hy 
tiles,  baked  in  the  little  oven  that  Junipero  had 
erected  for  the  purpose, 

These  first  simple  structures  were  not  intended 
as  the  permanent  home  of  the  San  Carlos  Bor- 
romeo  Mission,  but  as  accommodations  for  the 
priests,  with  such  converts  as  they  might  make, 
until  more  solid,  permanent  structures  could  be 
raised.  The  Mission  prospered  from  the  very 
beginning,  and  so  arduously  did  all  labour  that 
in  December  of  1771  the  new  Mission  houses 
were  completed  and  occupied.  One  peculiar 
expression  which  was  habitual  with  Junipero 
Serra.  and  which  he  invariably  used  as  a  greet- 
ing, "  Amar  a  Dios  " — Love  God,  was  gradually 
adopted  by  the  Indians,  who  would  invariably 
employ  it  in  accosting  the  Spaniards.  In  1773 
Junipero  Serra  made  a  report  to  the  Mexican 
Church,  and  it  then  became  known  that  more 
neophytes  were  being  added  to  the  Mission  of 
San  Carlos  Borromeo  than  any  other  that  had 
yet  been  established  in  our  country. 

In  1784  Padre  Serra  was  called  to  lay  down 


110          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

his  earthly  cross,  and  his  body  was  laid  to  rest 
in  the  sanctuary  of  San  Carlos. 

On  July  7,  1792,  the  corner  stone  of  a  new 
house  of  worship  was  laid,  and  soon  afterward, 
a  visit  to  Monterey  of  the  English  voyager, 
Captain  Van  Couver,  resulted  in. the  gift  from 
this  noted  explorer  of  a  handsome  barrel  organ 
for  the  use  of  the  Mission. 

To  the  student  of  architecture,  the  Mission 
Church  of  San  Carlos,  with  its  arched  western 
doorway,  its  central  star  window,  and  the  severely 
plain  gable  is  an  interesting  combination.  The 
most  elaborate  piece  of  architectural  detail  found 
in  any  of  the  Spanish  Missions  in  America  is 
said  by  an  architectural  authority  to  be  the  ornate 
clustered  columns  at  San  Carlos  Borromeo.  It 
is  at  the  entrance  to  the  Chapel  of  the  Sacred 
Heart  of  Jesus,  and  is  a  reproduction  from  the 
Alhambra;  showing,  no  doubt,  that  the  original 
from  which  it  was  evidently  copied  from  memory 
had  been  viewed  by  Padre  Serra  at  some  time 
in  his  life. 

While  the  founder  of  the  Mission  of  San 
Carlos  extended  his  labours  into  other  mission 
fields,  yet  the  first  Mission  he  founded  in  Cali- 
fornia had  his  deepest  love.  Here  was  his  home 
— if  a  Spanish  missionary  could  be  said  to  pos- 
sess a  home;  here,  he  made  his  special  abiding 
place.  Hence  the  tower,  the  star  window  and 
the  elaborately  carved  arches,  as  well  as  the 


OF   AMERICA  111 

wealth  of  carving  and  painting  in  the  mural 
decoration.  Unfortunately  only  half  obliter- 
ated fragments  of  these  remain. 

The  artistic  sense  of  the  founder  and  builder 
of  San  Carlos  seems  to  have  exhausted  itself  in 
the  construction  of  the  Mission  structure,  and 
to  have  left  nothing  for  the  furniture.  But  the 
altar  vessels — the  asperger  and  the  candlesticks, 
together  with  the  baptismal  vessels — were  rich 
both  in  material  and  workmanship.  These  are 
invariably  prominently  displayed  on  November 
4th,  the  day  of  the  patron  saint  of  the  Mission, 
after  whom  it  was  named,  San  Carlos  Borromeo, 
that  nephew  of  Pope  Pius  IV.  who  died  in  1584 
and  was  canonised  by  Pope  Paul  V.  in  1610. 
The  asperger  of  San  Carlos  Mission  is  a  dis- 
tinctively Moorish  design,  although  naturally  of 
Spanish  execution.  The  handle  is  cast  and 
turned;  the  base  is  hammered  from  the  back,  ac- 
cording to  the  primitive  method  in  vogue  in  Old 
Mexico,  the  design,  both  in  the  handle  and  in 
the  body  of  the  vessel,  being  an  interlacing  of 
moons  and  rings  in  arabesque.  Among  the 
other  highly  esteemed  possessions  of  the  Mission 
is  the  processional  cross  once  borne  on  feast  days 
by  Padre  Junipero  Serra  himself.  It  is  silver 
chased  in  a  neat  and  artistic  design,  both  on 
the  front  and  rear  sides.  The  Christ  is  of  brass 
and  is  evidently  more  modern,  having,  no  doubt, 
replaced  the  original  figure  that  must  have  been 


112          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

lost  or  stolen  during  the  dark  days  of  the  secu- 
larisation period.  The  two  altar  candlesticks 
are  beautifully  ornamented  in  olive-leaf  design. 

In  1779  direct  communication  was  established 
by  boat  with  Mexico,  and  from  that  time  the 
Mission  enjoyed  many  years  of  spiritual  and 
financial  prosperity,  as  the  providing  of  a  mar- 
ket for  the  crops  raised  on  the  Mission  lands 
gave  a  greater  incentive  to  husbandry,  as  well  as 
to  mining. 

In  1792  a  welcome  addition  was  made  to  the 
possessions  of  the  Mission  in  the  form  of  three 
sweet-toned  bells,  which  were  hung  from  a 
heavy  framework  resting  upon  a  solid  stone 
foundation. 

The  separation  of  the  church  from  the  state 
when  the  territory  became  American  resulted 
unfavourably  for  San  Carlos  Borromeo  Mission, 
and  gradually  the  neophytes  scattered;  service 
was  held  with  less  regularity,  the  finances  of 
the  Mission  grew  less  and  less  equal  to  keeping 
the  building  in  repair,  and  finally,  in  1852,  the 
roof  fell  in. 

In  1868  prominent  Catholics  in  various  sec- 
tions of  California  awoke  to  the  fact  that  the 
early  landmarks  of  their  faith  were  gradually 
being  lost  to  history,  and  a  vigorous  effort  was 
at  once  begun  to  restore  many  of  the  mission 
churches  to  their  former  condition,  among  these 
being  San  Carlos.  In  clearing  away  the  debris 


OF   AMERICA  113 

preparatory  to  this  work  the  workmen  came 
across  the  stone  coffin  within  which  lay  the  skele- 
ton of  Padre  Junipero  Serra,  in  an  inner  coffin 
of  redwood.  The  body  was  in  a  state  of  per- 
fect preservation;  even  the  stole  with  which  he 
had  been  adorned  at  the  time  of  his  burial  was 
in  excellent  condition.  The  work  of  restoration 
continued,  and  on  August  28,  1884,  the  Mission 
buildings  were  again  consecrated. 


114.          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


QUEEN   ANNE'S    CHAPEL 

FORT     HUNTER,     NEW    YORK 

A  an  audience  granted  to  a  delegation 
from  America  in  1708  Queen  Anne 
promised  better  protection  to  the  set- 
tlers who  had  colonised  the  region  claimed  by  the 
Mohawk  and  Onondaga  Indians.  Accordingly, 
two  years  later,  Robert  Hunter  sailed  for  the 
New  World,  carrying  with  him,  as  the  new  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  royal  orders  to  establish  a 
fort  at  the  junction  of  the  Schoharie  and  the 
Mohawk  Rivers  and  to  build  a  church  within  its 
walls.  The  year  1711  witnessed  the  erection  of  a 
fort  of  logs,  well  pinioned  together.  The  struc- 
ture measured  twelve  feet  in  height,  while  the  en- 
closure was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
square,  and  in  the  centre  of  this,  and  protected 
by  its  palisades,  rose  Queen  Anne's  Chapel.  It 
was  of  limestone,  twenty-four  feet  square,  and 
ornamented  with  a  belfry,  within  which  hung 
the  bell,  given  by  Queen  Anne  to  the  Mission. 
Many  years  afterward  this  bell  was  placed  in 
the  belfry  of  an  institution  of  learning  at  Johns- 
town, New  York,  and  called  the  students  to  their 


OF   AMERICA  115 

classes  until  the  building  was  destroyed  by  fire 
a  few  years  ago. 

The  entrance  to  the  chapel  faced  the  north, 
while  the  pulpit,  capped  by  a  sounding-board, 
stood  on  the  west  side.  In  the  customary  posi- 
tion stood  the  reading  desk,  and  opposite  the  pul- 
pit were  two  pews  built  upon  an  elevated  floor, 
one  for  the  minister's  family,  the  other  for  the 
officer  in  charge  of  the  garrison.  Many  years 
later  this  officer  was  the  famous  Sir  William 
Johnson.  Movable  seats  were  provided  for  the 
rest  of  the  congregation. 

Queen  Anne's  Chapel  boasted  the  possession 
of  the  first  church  organ  west  of  Albany,  a  gift 
from  the  Queen,  as  were  also  the  linen  for  the 
altar,  the  cushions  for  the  pulpit  and  reading 
desk,  the  carpet  for  the  floor  before  the  commun- 
ion table,  the  pulpit  Bible,  and  three  copies  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  The  Queen  gave 
also  twelve  large  octavo  Bibles  for  use  in  the 
various  chapels  which  she  ordered  built  for  the 
Mohawk  and  Onondaga  Indians,  as  well  as  a 
silver  eucharistic  set  of  five  pieces,  four  large 
shields  of  Her  Majesty's  coat  of  arms  for 
the  chapel,  three  paintings  of  the  Mohawk  chap- 
els she  contemplated  building,  and  two  painted 
tablets  containing  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed 
and  the  Ten  Commandments.  As  late  as  the 
Civil  War  Queen  Anne's  brass  candelabra  with 
nine  sockets,  arranged  in  the  form  of  a  triangle 


116          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

(the  emblem  of  the  Trinity)  and  a  large  cross, 
still  remained  in  the  rectory.  The  chaplain  at 
the  fort,  or  rectors  from  St.  Peter's  at  Albany 
conducted  the  services  in  the  chapel,  adjoining 
which  was  a  rectory,  built  in  1712.  On  Novem- 
ber 27,  1741,  the  chapel  received  the  grant  of  a 
tract  of  land  known  as  Queen  Anne's  Chapel 
Glebe,  a  direct  gift  from  the  Crown,  and  con- 
taining some  three  hundred  acres  of  tillable 
land. 

In  spite,  however,  of  this  royal  munificence, 
with  no  settled  rector  and  no  permanent  congre- 
gation, but  little  care  seems  to  have  been  taken 
to  keep  the  chapel  in  repair,  and  during  the 
Revolution  it  suffered  in  common  with  all  other 
edifices  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England. 
The  windows  were  destroyed,  the  floor  was  de- 
molished and  even  the  walls  were  cracked.  The 
silver  communion  set  was  only  saved  by  being 
buried  in  the  Indian  reservation  of  the  Mohawks, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  to  be  resur- 
rected in  1785  and  taken  by  the  Indians  under 
the  special  guardianship  of  a  daughter  of  Joseph 
Brant  to  the  new  Mohawk  church  at  Brantf  ord, 
Ontario,  Canada.  It  is  still  in  the  possession  of 
that  church,  and  used  on  special  occasions.  En- 
graved on  each  piece  of  plate  appears  the  in- 
scription, "  The  Gift  of  Her  Majesty  Anne,  by 
the  Grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain,  France  and 
Ireland  and  Her  Plantations  in  North  America, 


OF   AMERICA  117 

Queen,  to  Her  Indian  Chappel  of  the  Mo- 
hawks." The  Bible  remains  in  good  condition 
to  this  day  and  bears  on  its  cover  the  words, 
"  For  Her  Majesty's  Church  of  the  Mohawks, 
1712."  Meanwhile  the  bell  still  hung  in  the  bel- 
fry, but  the  Mohawks  attempted  to  gain  posses- 
sion of  even  this  interesting  relic,  and  actually 
secured  it  and  were  carrying  it  away  with  them 
in  a  boat.  When  the  white  settlers  became  aware 
of  the  depredation  and  gave  pursuit,  the  Indians 
sunk  it  in  the  river  so  hurriedly  that  they  cracked 
it,  but  the  settlers,  nothing  daunted,  recovered  it 
and  hung  it  once  more  in  the  belfry. 

The  ravages  of  time  gradually  threw  little 
Queen  Anne's  Chapel  into  dilapidation,  and  with 
no  churchmen  living  in  the  neighbourhood  and 
no  services  held,  it  finally  became  an  utter  ruin. 
From  the  rectory  some  of  the  bricks,  which  had 
been  brought  from  Holland  when  the  manse 
was  erected,  were  saved  and  embodied  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  St.  Ann's  at  Amsterdam, 
New  York,  the  church  that  succeeded  to  the 
glebe  which  had  been  granted  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  Queen  Anne's  Chapel.  Of  the  old 
chapel  not  the  slightest  vestige  remains  to-day. 


118          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


DUTCH   REFORMED    CHURCH 

KINGSTON,    NEW    YORK 

A  early   as    1659    the   Dutch    settlers    at 
Kingston,    New    York,    erected    with 
their  own  hands  a  little  church  build- 
ing, and  dedicated  it  the  following  year.   When 
a  regular  minister  arrived  from  Holland  this 
same  year  he  found  himself  a  domine  with  a 
membership  of  but  sixteen  souls  and  a  salary 
paid   in   wheat,    which   was   then   legal   tender 
among  these  humble  tillers  of  the  soil. 

This  first  little  hand-built  house  of  worship 
satisfied  the  needs  of  the  congregation  for  al- 
most one  hundred  years,  before  it  was  replaced 
by  a  more  substantial  structure,  which  was  dedi- 
cated on  November  29,  1753.  In  this  second 
edifice  the  members  worshipped  for  twenty-five 
years,  when,  on  October  16,  1777,  the  church  was 
burned  by  the  British  troops  that  took  possession 
of  Kingston  under  General  Vaughan.  The 
British  officers  were  at  first  half  inclined  to  allow 
it  to  stand,  as  it  offered  agreeable  shelter,  but 
when  they  learned  that  its  minister,  the  Rever- 
end Doctor  Doll,  was  one  of  the  most  ardent 
patriots  in  all  New  York,  they  meted  out  his 


OF   AMERICA  119 

punishment  to  him  in  the  form  of  a  fire  that 
destroyed  not  only  his  church,  but  his  parsonage 
too.  This  parsonage  was  a  stone  structure,  so 
carefully  built  that  after  both  war  and  fire  its 
walls  were  employed  in  the  new  "  Pfarrhaus  " 
that  is  still  standing  and  regularly  occupied. 

In  1694  a  bell  was  imported  and  gave  such 
pleasure  to  the  members  of  the  little  parish  that 
they  used  it  to  announce  the  hour  for  meals  for 
the  farmers  of  the  neighbourhood. 

The  observance  of  one  quaint  custom  was 
reminiscent  of  their  former  life  in  Holland— 
the  announcement  by  the  grey-haired  sexton,  be- 
tween the  ringing  of  the  first  and  last  church 
bells,  that  the  hour  for  service  had  arrived.  From 
door  to  door  he  travelled,  rapping  loudly  and 
crying,  "  Church  time!  " 

The  interior  of  the  church  was  fitted  up  in  the 
ancient  Dutch  style,  with  a  high,  narrow  pulpit, 
surmounted  by  a  sounding-board.  Notices  of 
all  kinds,  whether  of  funerals,  christenings,  wed- 
dings or  merry-makings,  were  handed  first  to  the 
sexton,  who  in  turn  gave  them  to  the  clerk,  who 
stuck  them  on  the  end  of  the  bamboo  pole  which 
he  kept  for  that  purpose  and  reached  them  up 
to  the  domine.  At  the  termination  of  the  serv- 
ice, as  in  other  Dutch  churches  we  have  seen, 
the  deacons  took  up  the  collection  with  long  poles 
having  little  velvet  bags  hung  on  the  ends  and  a 
tinkling  bell  to  wake  the  sleepers  to  the  responsi- 


120          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

bilities  of  a  contribution.  Money  being  scarce, 
"  tokens  "  stamped  by  the  church  were  accepted 
as  coin,  though  naturally  the  church  expected 
them  to  be  duly  redeemed.  At  the  communion 
service  no  communicant  would  think  of  approach- 
ing the  table  unless  suitably  attired  in  black. 

The  charter  of  the  Kingston  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  was  granted  by  the  British  throne  in 
1719,  and  in  virtue  of  that  authority  the  little 
Church  maintained  an  independent  position,  even 
when  all  other  churches  of  its  denomination  in 
this  country  accepted  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Gen- 
eral Synod  of  the  Dutch  Church  in  America. 
In  1818,  however,  realising  that  if  united  with 
other  churches  of  its  own  tenets  it  could  render 
greater  service  in  the  cause  of  the  Master,  it 
joined  hands  with  the  remaining  churches  of  its 
denomination,  acquiring  representation  thereby 
in  the  General  Synod. 

The  little  church  has  steadily  prospered  and 
is  still  most  aggressive  in  promoting  good  will 
among  mankind. 


OF   AMERICA  121 


ST.    GEORGE'S    CHURCH 

SCHENECTADY,    NEW    YORK 

QUEEN  ANNE'S  interest  in  the  Amer- 
ican Indians  dates  from  the  visit  of 
several  chiefs  to  London  during  the 
first  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  they  accompanied  the  Mayor  of  Albany. 
The  Mayor's  mission  was  to  ask  additional  pro- 
tection from  the  inroads  of  the  French  through- 
out the  Colony  of  New  York,  and  pursuant  to 
the  instructions  of  the  Queen  at  this  time  a  mis- 
sionary was  sent  out  to  the  Mohawks  in  1710. 
Services  were  held  at  stated  intervals,  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  at  Schenectady  giving  the  use 
of  its  church  building  for  the  purpose.  The 
English  settlers,  and  the  Dutch  as  well,  joined 
with  some  forty  British  soldiers  stationed  at  Fort 
Hunter,  regularly  attended  these  services. 

In  1731  the  Reverend  John  Miln,  who  had 
become  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  at  Albany,  engaged  to  visit  Schenec- 
tady four  times  each  year,  and  to  remain  with 
the  little  parish  there  five  days  upon  each  trip. 
During  one  of  his  earlier  visits  he  appointed  the 
Reverend  Henry  Barclay  lay  reader  at  Fort 


122          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Hunter,  under  whose  faithful  ministration  no 
less  than  five  hundred  Mohawk  Indians  were 
converted  and  came  regularly  to  service.  Many 
of  these  by  1741  had  become  communicants  in 
the  little  parish,  and  two  years  later  nearly  every 
one  of  the  Indian  attendants  had  been  confirmed 
at  some  one  of  the  successive  visits  of  the  Rev- 
erend John  Miln.  Later,  after  the  terrible  mas- 
sacres of  the  French  and  Indian  Wars,  during 
which  settlers  in  outlying  districts  abandoned 
their  farms  and  fled  to  Albany  for  protection, 
the  number  of  communicants  in  Schenectady,  of 
course,  materially  decreased. 

In  1748  the  young  clergyman,  the  Reverend 
John  N.  Brown,  came  from  London  to  the  Mo- 
hawk Nation.  But  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he 
was  full  of  ardour  and  entered  upon  his  work 
with  such  energy  that  he  soon  convinced  the 
parishioners  they  should  have  the  church  he 
planned  for  them.  In  1759  his  hopes  were  real- 
ised and  the  little  church  was  dedicated  as  "  St. 
George's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church."  This 
same  church  building  is  still  standing  to-day, 
although  it  has  been  enlarged  no  less  than  three 
times  to  accommodate  the  increasing  number  of 
its  communicants. 

Sir  William  Johnson  figures  among  the  prin- 
cipal contributors  to  the  fund  for  the  erection  of 
St.  George's.  Through  the  generosity  of  Brit- 
ish officers  stationed  near  Schenectady  the  church 


OF   AMERICA  123 

also  acquired  a  library  which  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  valuable  outside  the  City  of 
New  York.  Unfortunately  it  was  destroyed 
during  the  turbulent  times  of  the  Revolution, 
together  with  the  organ  and  the  interior  furnish- 
ings. St.  George's,  like  other  Episcopal  churches 
at  that  time,  fell  a  prey  to  the  Whigs,  and  its 
rector,  the  Reverend  Mr.  Doty,  barely  escaped 
from  the  patriot  mob  with  life  and  limb. 

For  a  number  of  years  after  the  close  of  the 
war  the  parish  could  not  support  a  clergyman, 
and  held  service  irregularly  till  1795,  when  they 
again  called  a  rector.  Since  then,  it  has  thrived 
materially  and  spiritually. 

In  architecture  St.  George's  resembles  the 
ancient  churches  of  the  old  country.  The  orig- 
inal structure  was  rectangular  in  shape,  fifty 
feet  by  thirty-six;  its  walls,  which  were  built  of 
stone,  being  three  feet  in  thickness.  It  was,  and 
is  still,  divided  by  two  rows  of  columns  of  a 
Tuscan  type.  Over  the  nave  the  ceiling  is  arched, 
but  flat  over  the  aisles.  In  order  to  increase  the 
seating  space  of  the  church,  a  gallery  was 
added  later,  extending  around  three  sides  of  the 
edifice.  Later  still  this  was  found  insufficient 
also,  and  transepts  were  built  and  a  tower  was 
erected  against  the  west  end  of  the  church,  add- 
ing immensely  to  its  appearance.  The  arched 
windows  are  set  with  coloured  glass,  with  broad 
mullions. 


124          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Within,  the  pews  are  of  dark  red  wood,  and 
possess  individual  doors.  The  addition  of  the 
transepts  made  an  enlargement  of  the  chancel 
possible,  and  the  galleries,  with  the  exception  of 
the  one  in  the  west  end  above  the  entrance,  were 
removed. 

In  1905,  soon  after  his  installation  as  rector  of 
St.  George's,  the  Reverend  Dr.  B.  W.  R.  Tay- 
lor, the  present  incumbent,  urged  upon  the  vestry 
a  thorough  repairing  of  the  church  edifice,  and 
through  his  efforts  brought  about  the  complete 
restoration  of  the  building.  Among  other  pres- 
ents which  the  parish  received  at  this  time  were 
a  new  pulpit,  a  baptismal  font,  and  a  lectern,  all 
harmonising  in  design  and  material  with  the  pews 
and  interior  decorations.  In  deference  to  the 
wish  of  the  .Reverend  Dr.  Taylor,  the  original 
white  of  the  interior  was  restored,  and  its  beauty 
much  enhanced.  The  charm  of  the  exterior  still 
arouses  the  interest  of  all  beholders,  who  often 
echo  the  expressions  of  pleasure  that  George 
Washington  is  .said  to  have  uttered  when  he  first 
viewed  old  St.  George's  at  Schenectady. 


OF   AMERICA  125 


THE   QUAKER   MEETING 
HOUSE 

FLUSHING,    NEW    YORK 

IN  1692  the  Friends  were  the  only  religious 
denomination  in  Flushing,  Long  Island, 
that  held  regular  services,  though  they  had 
not  yet  built  any  church  and  met  only  in  private 
houses.  During  that  same  year  they  succeeded 
in  obtaining  funds  with  which  to  purchase  land 
and  erect  a  meeting-house,  and  chose  three  acres 
of  land  in  what  seemed  to  them  a  desirable  loca- 
tion. On  September  3,  1693,  they  promptly 
began  the  cutting  of  the  timber  so  that  they 
might  have  a  roof  to  worship  under  by  the  fol- 
lowing January.  The  building  took  a  longer 
time  than  they  had  contemplated,  and  the  first 
meeting  was  not  held  in  their  house  of  worship 
until  August  4,  1694;  the  meeting-house  was 
small  and  plain ;  it  wholly  lacked  flooring  and  all 
means  of  heating,  but  such  as  it  was,  in  two 
years  it  was  ready  for  occupancy  and  the  first 
"  yearly  meeting  "  was  held  in  it. 

By  1704  it  was  found  necessary  to  make  re- 
pairs, and  the  meeting-house  received  a  new 
shingled  roof,  while  the  walls  were  replastered. 


126          HISTORIC   CHURCHES 

In  this  building  in  1716  was  held  the  first  public 
meeting  in  New  York  to  agitate  the  abolition  of 
slavery.  The  subject  was  debated  also  in  each 
of  the  ensuing  yearly  meetings,  and  in  1718  Mr. 
William  Burling  published  an  anti-slavery  ad- 
dress which  had  been  made  before  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  Friends  in  the  Flushing  meeting- 
house. This  was  the  first  anti-slavery  publication 
ever  issued  in  this  country. 

In  1716  it  became  necessary  to  build  a  larger 
and  more  substantial  meeting-house,  and  on  Sep- 
tember 28,  1719,  the  Friends  found  themselves 
in  a  new  house  of  worship.  This  building  is  the 
one  now  used  by  the  Friends  in  Flushing  and 
has  undergone  few  alterations.  Originally  a 
gallery  extended  around  three  sides  of  it,  but  in 
1763  this  was  removed  and  a  second  story  added. 
This  upper  story  was  divided  and  in  one  portion 
a  school  was  kept  for  children  of  the  Friends' 
families.  Three  years  before  this  alteration  was 
made  stoves  were  introduced  into  the  building. 

During  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  while  the 
Friends  were  holding  a  meeting  one  Sunday  in 
1776,  officers  of  the  British  Army  broke  into 
the  meeting-house  and  would  have  seized  it,  but 
were  so  impressed  by  the  earnest  spirit  of  the 
Friends  that  they  agreed  to  wait  until  the  meet- 
ing was  over  before  .taking  possession.  Take  it 
they  did,  however,  and  used  it  as  a  hospital,  the 
divided  upper  portion  serving  as  a  prison  bar- 


a 
I 


OF   AMERICA  127 

racks  and  storehouse  for  firearms,  the  fence 
around  the  graveyard  for  fuel. 

Many  of  the  Friends  suffered  from  fines,  both 
from  the  British  and  from  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment, because  they  would  not  contribute  funds 
for  the  support  of  the  two  armies,  but  persisted 
in  their  worship.  While  their  meeting-house  was 
occupied  by  the  military  authorities,  they  still 
met  in  private  houses  or  in  barns,  no  attempts 
being  made,  to  the  credit  of  the  British  be  it 
said,  to  molest  the  attendants  at  any  of  these 
services. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  the  meeting-house 
was  thoroughly  repaired,  and  in  1783  was  again 
opened  for  service.  Since  that  time  the  Friends 
have  gathered  regularly  in  it  and  the  old  house 
of  worship  has  become  one  of  the  quaintest  land- 
marks of  Long  Island. 


128          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   ANN'S   CHURCH 

BROOKLYN,    NEW    YORK 

THE  first  Episcopal  Church  in  what  now 
constitutes  Kings  County,  Long  Island, 
was  established  in  1784,  soon  after  the 
close  of  the  Revolution.  It  scarcely  took  the 
form  of  a  church  organisation;  the  very  few 
Episcopalians  in  and  about  Brooklyn  being 
served  occasionally  by  some  of  the  clergymen 
of  New  York  City,  assembling  in  an  upper  room 
in  an  old  one-and-a-half  story  brick  house  at  No. 
40  "Old  Ferry  Road."  No  record  exists  to 
show  that  this  little  band  of  worshippers  was 
ever  incorporated  as  a  church  organisation  or 
had  any  regular  officers. 

Two  years  later,  however,  the  first  regularly 
established  and  incorporated  Episcopal  church 
in  Kings  County  was  formed;  it  numbered  not 
more  than  fifteen  or  sixteen  parishioners,  and 
naturally  hesitated  about  incurring  the  expense 
of  building  a  church  edifice.  The  parish  hired 
for  worship  an  old  long  one-story  house  at  the 
northwest  corner  of  Fulton  and  Middagh  streets ; 
the  interior  partitions  were  removed  and  a  pulpit 
and  seats  "  with  backs  "  were  constructed.  These 


OF   AMERICA  129 

pews  were  sold  later  to  aid  in  paying  the  salary 
of  the  first  rector  of  the  church — the  Reverend 
Mr.  Wright.  The  parish  does  not  seem  to  have 
had  any  name  at  this  time. 

This  little  humble  structure  was  occupied  by 
the  church  for  more  than  a  year,  and  in  1787  Mr. 
John  Carpenter  transferred  to  the  "Episcopal 
Church  of  Brooklyn  "  a  church  edifice  that  had 
been  erected  in  Fulton  Street  for  a  congregation 
of  "Independents."  On  April  23,  1787,  the 
church  was  legally  incorporated.  Through  some 
misunderstanding  the  right  to  own  the  property 
of  the  parish  was  vested  in  seven  trustees.  This 
being  contrary  to  the  policy  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  a  reorganisation  was  decided  upon,  and 
the  Church  newly  incorporated,  June  22,  1795, 
under  the  title  of  St.  Ann's  Church,  and  placed 
regularly  under  the  government  of  church  war- 
dens and  vestrymen. 

The  Church  on  Fulton  Street,  which  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  graveyard  that  is  still  used,  was 
occupied  by  the  parish  nearly  twenty  years,  when 
there  was  erected  a  more  substantial  edifice  than 
the  old  frame  building  that  had  been  occupied  so 
long.  This  new  church,  built  of  stone,  and  larger 
in  proportions  than  its  predecessors,  was  built 
on  Sands  Street.  It  was  dedicated  in  1805,  and 
five  years  later  there  was  installed  in  it  the  first 
church  organ  used  in  King's  County. 

The  parish  of  St.  Ann's  prospered  spiritually 


130          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

and  temporally,  and  it  was  found  necessary  in 
1825  to  provide  for  a  still  larger  congregation. 
A  new  church  edifice,  of  brick,  was  built  on 
Washington  Street,  in  close  proximity  to  the 
older  structure.  This  was  consecrated  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1825  by  the 
Right  Reverend  John  Cross,  Bishop  of  New 
Jersey,  assisted  by  the  Bishops  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Rhode  Island.  Within  its  walls  were  still 
held  the  only  Episcopal  church  services  in  the 
County  of  Kings,  except  those  conducted  in  the 
chapel  of  the  Navy  Yard. 

The  same  spirit  of  progress  is  noted  in  the 
conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the  parish  as  have 
characterised  it  from  the  outset.  To-day  St. 
Ann's  Church  is  able  to  boast  the  only  female 
choir  in  Brooklyn,  while  equal  care  is  exercised 
in  promoting  athletic  sports  among  the  young 
men  of  the  parish  and  a  spirit  of  sociability 
among  all,  resulting  in  strong  bonds  of  good 
fellowship  and  producing  a  "home  feeling" 
that  is  shared  with  all  strangers  within  her  gates. 


OF    AMERICA  131 


DUTCH   REFORMED    CHURCH 

NEWTOWN,    LONG    ISLAND 

OF  the  Dutch  Reformed  families  in  early 
New  York  many  removed  from  time  to 
time  beyond  the  limits  of  New  Amster- 
dam, securing  for  themselves  broader  sections  of 
land  for  tillage,  and  among  them  a  number  of 
such  families  settled  in  Long  Island,  where  they 
formed  the  hamlet  of  Newtown.  Unable  to  sup- 
port a  minister  and  to  maintain  a  church  build- 
ing of  their  own,  they  joined  hands  with  others 
of  the  same  faith  at  Flushing,  and  for  a  number 
of  years  worshipped  there,  until  December  2, 
1731,  when  a  meeting  of  the  resident  members 
in  Newtown  was  called  to  form  plans  for  the 
establishment  of  a  church  organisation  of  their 
own  and  to  devise  means  for  the  erection  of  a 
house  of  worship  upon  land  contributed  by  Peter 
Berrien.  At  a  subsequent  meeting  held  on  May 
27,  a  committee  was  appointed  which  at  once 
began  active  operations  for  the  erection  of  a 
meeting-house  at  the  intersection  of  Broadway 
and  Union  Avenue  in  Newtown. 

The  building  they  erected  conformed  to  the 
usual  style  of  the  early  Dutch  churches  in  this 


132          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

section  of  the  country,  being  octagonal  in  shape, 
with  a  roof  ascending  from  each  side,  while  a 
cupola  perched  upon  its  apex,  and  within  was 
the  usual  narrow  and  lofty  pulpit,  with  its  inevi- 
table sounding-board.  One  side  of  the  church 
was  used  for  the  seating  of  the  male  members 
of  the  congregation  and  the  other  for  the 
women. 

For  two  years,  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  the  British  used  the  old  church  for  a  pow- 
der magazine,  while  the  church  members  held 
intermittent  meetings  in  the  houses  of  various 
members  of  the  congregation. 

In  1828  the  trustees  secured  its  incorporation 
under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
in  1831  the  old  meeting-house  was  torn  down  to 
make  room  for  the  present  church.  The  corner 
stone  of  this  later  structure,  which  is  built  in  the 
Colonial  style,  was  laid  on  September  16,  1831, 
and  the  church  was  dedicated  on  July  29,  1832. 
Into  this  new  structure  were  brought  many  of 
the  furnishings  that  had  been  used  during  the 
ninety-eight  years'  occupancy  of  the  old  meet- 
ing-house. 

In  1854  one  of  the  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion erected  a  chapel  adjoining  the  church  build- 
ing, and  ten  years  later  the  consistory  of  the 
Church  organised  a  mission  at  Winfield,  erecting 
there  in  1880  a  substantial  and  handsome  struc- 
ture. 


OF   AMERICA  133 

A  sale  of  land  donated  to  the  church  by  one 
of  its  members  netted  so  handsome  a  sum  that  in 
the  spring  of  1906  the  church  edifice  was  thor- 
oughly renovated,  even  to  the  extent  of  a  gener- 
ous enlargement  of  the  structure,  though  the 
Colonial  style  was  carefully  preserved.  The 
chapel  was  brought  to  a  level  with  the  church 
building  and  a  covered  passageway  constructed 
to  connect  the  two.  On  each  side  of  this  passage- 
way were  built  church  parlours  to  encourage 
social  gatherings  among  the  members  of  the  con- 
gregation. New  windows  were  placed  through- 
out the  church  building  and  a  new  pulpit  and 
choir  platform  erected.  The  main  auditorium 
was  completely  remodelled,  and  being  arched, 
groined,  and  decorated,  was  made  most  attrac- 
tive. The  organ  was  rebuilt  and  a  water  motor 
introduced  to  operate  it. 

In  the  belfry  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church 
of  Newtown  swings  the  bell  that  has  summoned 
the  congregation  to  worship  during  the  past  one 
hundred  and  fifteen  years.  It  was  cast  in  Hol- 
land in  1792. 

From  the  number  of  missionary  stations 
founded  by  the  Newtown  church  and  the  careful 
guard  she  has  preserved  over  their  welfare,  it  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  the  mother  church 
throughout  Queens  County.  Among  the  off- 
spring of  this  church  may  be  named  the  churches 
at  Astoria,  East  Williamsburg,  Long  Island 


134          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

City,    Steinway,    Ridgewood    and    the    Second 
German  Church  of  Newtown. 

The  one  hundred  and  seventy-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  the  founding  of  the  church  organisation 
took  place  during  the  week  beginning  Sunday, 
March  10,  1907,  and  brought  together  members 
of  widely  scattered  families  whose  ancestors  had 
been  closely  allied  with  the  history  of  the  Church. 


OF    AMERICA  135 


THE   OLD   PALATINE    CHURCH 

IN    THE    MOHAWK    VALLEY 

THE  marriage  of  the  eldest  daughter  of 
King  James  II.  of  England  to  William 
of  Orange  naturally  resulted,  when  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  came  to  the  English  throne,  in 
the  emigration  of  many  Germans  to  the  British 
Isles.  In  these  Protestant  Germans,  Mary's 
sister,  Queen  Anne,  evidently  became  deeply  in- 
terested, for  she  aided  them  in  every  way  pos- 
sible, donating  for  their  support  large  tracts  of 
land  in  America  and  sending  out  numerous 
colonies  of  them  at  the  expense  of  the  royal 
treasury. 

During  Queen  Anne's  reign,  in  1706,  one  such 
colony  sent  out  to  the  Mohawk  Valley  met  in 
each  other's  homes  for  worship  until  on  June  2, 
1729,  they  dedicated  their  first  house  of  God. 
It  was  a  rude  structure  built  of  logs,  surrounded 
by  a  palisade  for  protection  against  the  Indians, 
and  lacking  flooring  and  chimney.  A  roughly- 
built  pulpit  and  homely  seats  were  all  its  fur- 
niture, but  the  people  rejoiced  in  it  at  last  as  a 
building  of  their  own,  consecrated  to  the  worship 
of  God.  Queen  Anne  sent  them  a  silver  com- 


136          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

munion  service,  and  the  glebe  about  the  church 
was  also  a  gift  from  her. 

The  little  church  passed  through  many  trying 
vicissitudes,  including  attacks  by  hostile  Indians, 
before  it  was  replaced  in  1770  by  the  stone  struc- 
ture which  is  still  standing  and  occupied  regularly 
for  service.  This  stone  church  is  on  the  river 
road  in  what  is  now  the  little  town  of  Palatine, 
and  draws  its  membership  from  both  sides  of  the 
river.  Before  its  erection  there  had  been  no 
resident  minister,  the  congregation  being  served 
by  a  Lutheran  minister  who  came  from  Stone 
Arabia,  some  five  or  six  miles  distant. 

The  edifice,  which  is  known  as  the  "  Palatine 
Stone  Church,"  was  dedicated  August  18,  1770. 
In  architectural  design,  with  its  gambrel  roof,  it 
differs  from  most  of  the  ancient  church  buildings 
that  have  survived  to  our  own  day.  Originally, 
the  entrance  opened  toward  the  north,  and  over 
it  was  inserted  a  large  rectangular  stone  bearing 
an  inscription  in  German  and  the  date  of  dedi- 
cation. This  front  door  was  closed  in  1868  and 
two  doors  opened  at  the  easterly  end  of  the  struc- 
ture. A  gallery  runs  around  three  sides  of  the 
interior.  The  pulpit  originally  stood  directly 
opposite  the  entrance,  in  shape  resembling  a  tall 
goblet,  reached  by  a  staircase  which  wound  round 
the  stem.  Above  it  hung  the  sounding-board, 
which  together  with  the  pulpit  was  painted  drab. 
The  pews  had  high,  straight  backs  that  forbade 


OF   AMERICA  137 

sleeping  and  were  painted  a  "Spanish  brown" 
in  the  prevailing  style  of  the  day. 

The  old  pews  have  been  remodelled  and  the 
old  pulpit  has  given  place  to  a  more  modern  one, 
but  the  large  square  pews  on  each  side  of  it  retain 
their  original  form.  The  old  gallery  has  disap- 
peared, and  the  old-time  bell  was  long  ago  re- 
placed by  one  which  for  sweetness  of  tone  is 
famous  throughout  the  whole  Mohawk  Valley. 

On  August  18, 1870,  the  Church  held  a  centen- 
nial service,  which  brought  together  many  widely- 
scattered  descendants  of  its  original  founders. 


138          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


CENTER   CHURCH 

NEW    HAVEN,    CONNECTICUT 

IN  1637  John  Davenport  and  a  little  band  of 
followers  came  to  Quinnipiac,  seeking  re- 
ligious freedom.  For  months  they  wor- 
shipped under  immense  oak  trees,  and  finally  on 
April  18,  1838,  dedicated  a  house  of  worship 
erected  upon  the  ground  they  had  already  hal- 
lowed with  their  prayers.  During  the  previous 
winter,  when  the  weather  had  been  intensely  cold, 
services  had  been  held  regularly  in  the  barn  of 
Robert  Newman. 

On  June  4, 1639,  a  meeting  was  called  to  effect 
a  union  between  the  Separatists  and  the  Puri- 
tans. With  a  spirit  of  remarkable  toleration, 
each  sect  regarded  the  opinions  of  the  other  as 
individual  and  not  forbidding  their  admittance 
into  so  close  a  relationship  as  one  church  body. 
The  final  organisation  was  accomplished  and 
seven  elders  chosen  from  the  two  differing  sects 
to  administer  the  church  affairs  on  August  22. 
So  broad  was  their  platform  that  to  secure  mem- 
bership in  the  church  the  candidate  was  required 
only  to  acknowledge  his  belief  in  Christianity. 

The  structure  erected  by  the  members  of  this 


Center  Church,  New  Haven,  Connecticut 


OF   AMERICA  139 

union  was  used  not  only  for  religious  serv- 
ices, but  also  as  a  general  court.  The  building 
was  only  fifty  feet  square,  and  when  the  erection 
of  a  tower  was  considered,  the  framework  was 
found  to  be  too  light  to  support  its  weight.  The 
tower  was  therefore  shored  up  on  posts,  and  these 
in  time  showing  signs  of  decay,  in  January, 
1660,  the  congregation  convened  to  determine  a 
remedy.  No  more  economical  measures  having 
been  suggested,  both  the  tower  and  the  turret 
were  taken  down  carefully,  and  the  old  shoring 
replaced  with  new. 

To  provide  against  unexpected  Indian  attacks 
a  sentinel  stood  watch  every  Sabbath  in  this 
turret,  while  armed  guards  patrolled  the  road  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  meeting-house.  The  charg- 
ing and  training  of  two  cannon  before  service 
added  to  the  feeling  of  security  of  the  worship- 
pers. With  that  spirit  of  intense  practicality  that 
marked  all  their  procedures,  provision  was  made 
to  prevent  any  women  or  children  ascending  to 
the  turret  during  divine  service,  that  the  attention 
of  the  sentinel  might  not  be  distracted  from  his 
duty.  A  spirit  of  martial  law  was  also  evidenced 
by  the  beating  of  a  drum  as  a  signal  to  assemble 
for  worship. 

By  1662  the  congregation  had  so  increased  in 
numbers  that  seats  were  brought  in  until  the 
aisles  were  too  crowded  for  passage.  Low 
benches  were  erected  along  the  side  walls  to  ac- 


140          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

commodate  the  younger  people  of  the  congre- 
gation and  later  another  gallery  was  added. 

In  this  church  the  custom  arose  of  standing 
while  the  minister  read  the  text  for  the  day. 

In  1669  the  congregation  hegan  seriously  to 
consider  the  erection  of  another  building  for  the 
better  accommodation  of  the  attendants,  but  no 
contractor  could  be  found  willing  to  erect  such 
a  structure  as  was  desired  for  the  amount  off ered. 
It  was  finally  decided  to  enlarge  the  present  edi- 
fice, with  a  result  far  from  artistic.  The  win- 
dows in  the  new  portion  were  larger  than  the  old 
ones;  the  new  lumber  made  the  old  clapboards 
look  rusty;  and  even  the  subsequent  boarding 
over  of  the  old  portion  of  the  meeting-house  and 
the  enlarging  of  the  original  windows  did  not 
mend  matters.  Finally,  on  November  14,  1770, 
the  meeting-house  was  sold  at  auction,  and  the 
congregation  erected  a  new  structure.  Eleven 
years  later,  in  1681,  they  purchased  a  bell,  and 
from  that  time  the  beating  of  the  drum  as  a  call 
to  worship  was  abandoned.  The  bell  was  also 
rung  as  a  curfew  at  nine  o'clock  each  evening. 

The  third  church  edifice  was  built  in  1757, 
upon  the  original  site,  to  be  succeeded  in  1814 
by  the  present  structure,  which,  with  its  stately 
pillars  and  tall  steeple,  presents  a  dignified  and 
beautiful  appearance,  standing  in  the  centre  of 
the  spacious  green. 

A  stained-glass  window  in  the  church  depicts 


OF   AMERICA  141 

a  scene  commemorative  of  the  preaching  of  the 
pioneer,  Davenport,  under  a  wide-spreading  oak 
tree;  the  women  and  children  grouped  about 
him  tell  the  story  of  the  journeying  of  his  flock 
through  the  wilderness  from  Salem  to  the  Con- 
necticut shore,  while  a  seven-branched  candle- 
stick symbolises  the  seven  elders  who  planned 
the  original  church  organisation. 

Center  Church  is  regarded  with  deep  affec- 
tion by  the  alumni  of  Yale  University,  as  the 
graduating  exercises  have  been  held  within  its 
walls  for  a  century.  In  the  graveyard  about 
the  church  lie  many  of  the  pioneers  of  the  city; 
among  them  three  of  the  judges  who  voted  for 
the  execution  of  Charles  I.  find  a  quiet  resting 
place. 


142          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   JOHN'S    CHURCH 

PORTSMOUTH,    NEW    HAMPSHIRE 

THE  site  on  which  St.  John's  Church, 
in  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  was 
erected,  and  which  came  to  be  known  as 
"  Church  Hill,"  was  the  gift  of  an  Englishman, 
a  resident  of  the  village.  In  honour  of  Caro- 
line Wilhelmina  of  Anspach,  wife  of  King 
George  II,  of  England,  in  whose  reign  the  little 
church  sprang  up,  the  parishioners  named  it 
"  Queen's  Chapel,"  and  the  Queen  sent  the  parish 
a  prayer  book,  a  silver  communion  service  and  a 
Bible,  which  latter  is  now  one  of  the  most  cher- 
ished possessions  of  the  Church  as  well  as  intrin- 
sically the  most  valuable.  It  was  one  of  four 
copies  of  an  edition  which  had  been  stricken  off 
by  the  printer  before  the  discovery  of  the  error 
in  the  New  Testament  which  substitutes  "vin- 
egar" for  "vineyard,"  known  to  collectors  as 
the  "  vinegar  "  Bible. 

In  1732  a  more  substantial  structure  succeeded 
the  little  "  Queen's  Chapel,"  and  the  parish  then 
took  to  itself  the  name  of  the  beloved  disciple. 
The  first  rector  of  the  church,  the  Reverend 
Arthur  Brown,  is  known  to  history  as  the  clergy- 


OF   AMERICA  143 

man  who  performed  the  ceremony  that  made 
Governor  Wentworth  and  his  humble  maid- 
servant, Martha  Hilton,  man  and  wife.  The  old 
bell  that  summoned  the  ancient  parish  to  worship 
also  deserves  special  mention.  It  had  originally 
hung  in  the  French  Cathedral  in  Louisburg, 
Cape  Breton,  and  was  one  of  the  prizes  secured 
in  the  capture  of  that  city  on  April  4,  1745. 

When  the  American  Colonies  declared  their 
independence  the  objectionable  prayers  for  the 
English  sovereign  and  his  family  provided  in 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  were  obliterated 
at  St.  John's  by  the  simple  process  of  pasting 
over  them  slips  of  paper  on  which  were  printed 
prayers  for  Congress  and  the  success  of  the 
patriot  army.  Money  was  scarce  and  prayer 
books  too  costly  to  be  cast  aside.  Years  later  an 
English  officer,  finding  one  of  these  old  prayer 
books  in  the  pew  he  occupied  in  the  little  church, 
cut  out  the  leaf  as  a  relic. 

On  December  24, 1806,  St.  John's  was  burned, 
and  the  supports  of  the  belfry  giving  way,  let 
the  bell  sink  to  the  ground  with  such  force  as  to 
crack  it  seriously.  The  parish  sent  it  to  Boston 
to  be  recast  by  no  less  notable  a  person  than  Paul 
Revere,  and  at  the  same  time  set  about  the  erec- 
tion of  a  new  house  of  worship,  in  which  they 
hung  the  bell  in  place  again,  wrhere  it  still  rings 
the  New  England  curfew. 

One  of  the  most  notable  ministrations  of  St. 


144          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

John's  Church  is  the  "  Church  dole,"  instituted 
by  Colonel  Thomas  Atkinson,  who  daily  brought 
in  person  for  the  needy  of  the  parish  a  liberal 
supply  of  bread  and  placed  it  in  the  baptismal 
font  where  all  the  poor  in  the  town  could  freely 
partake  of  it.  The  members  of  the  parish  still 
observe  this  custom. 

The  church  organ  was  first  imported  by  a 
Boston  congregation  in  1713,  and  after  various 
vicissitudes  came  into  the  possession  of  St, 
John's  in  1836.  Among  the  relics  preserved  by 
the  Church  is  a  credence  table  made  from  wood 
that  was  once  a  part  of  the  United  States  Frig- 
ate Hartford,  Admiral  Farragut's  flagship  when 
he  captured  New  Orleans.  The  church  equip- 
ment, indeed,  has  been  gathered  from  all  parts 
of  the  world,  the  baptismal  font  being  a  trophy 
taken  by  Captain  Thomas  Mason  from  the 
French  at  the  capture  of  Senegal  on  the  west 
coast  of  Africa. 


OF   AMERICA  145 


TRINITY   CHURCH 

NEW    YORK    CITY 

THE  "  English  Church,"  as  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  was  called  in  the  New 
Netherlands,  largely  superseded  the 
Dutch  Reformed  Church  when  the  English  con- 
querors took  possession  of  Manhattan.  The 
little  chapel  within  the  fort  was  named  "  King's 
Chapel"  and  the  liturgy  was  read  in  it  until 
1697,  when  Trinity  Church  was  completed. 

The  first,  and  original,  Trinity  Church  was 
nearly  a  year  in  building,  though  it  was  but  a 
small,  square  structure.  It  stood  on  the  west 
side  of  Broadway,  and  a  slope  of  green  lawn 
behind  it  ran  down  to  the  Hudson  River.  In 
1737  an  enlargement  of  the  church  building  was 
undertaken,  and  completed  in  1739,  increasing 
its  dimensions  to  one  hundred  and  forty-eight 
feet  in  length  by  seventy  in  width.  At  the  same 
time  a  steeple  one  hundred  and  seventy  feet  in 
height  was  added. 

The  church  occupied  this  edifice  until  1776, 
when  it  was  destroyed  by  a  fire  which  threatened 
the  whole  town  four  days  after  the  British  Gen- 


146          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

eral  Howe  had  seized  the  city.  Little  effort  was 
made  to  rebuild  until  after  the  close  of  the  Revo- 
lution, when,  in  1788,  a  new  building  rose  over 
the  old  ruins.  It  fell  far  short  of  the  ample 
dimensions  of  its  predecessor,  but  served  the 
needs  of  the  parish  until  about  1841,  when  they 
laid  the  corner  stone  of  a  third  church,  the  pres- 
ent "  Trinity,"  which  was  consecrated  in  May, 
1846. 

From  this  "  mother  in  Israel "  went  forth  vari- 
ous offspring  as  the  family  became  too  numerous 
and  widely  scattered  to  meet  in  the  old  church. 
Under  her  faithful  wing  three  other  charges— 
St.  George's,  St.  Paul's  and  St.  John's  Chapels, 
grew  up,  the  first  becoming  an  independent  par- 
ish in  1849,  while  St.  Paul's  and  St.  John's  are 
still  chapels  of  Old  Trinity. 

At  the  outset  of  its  career  Trinity  Church 
owned  a  large  tract  of  land  to  which  was  added 
a  magnificent  endowment  from  the  English 
Government — the  gift  of  "  Queen's  Farm,"  em- 
bodying all  that  tract  of  land  lying  between 
Vesey  Street  on  the  south  and  Christopher 
Street  on  the  north,  and  running  from  Broad- 
way to  the  Hudson  River.  A  greater  part  of 
this  domain  is  still  in  the  possession  of  the 
church,  which  derives  a  large  income  from  it. 
From  this  source  comes  the  sustenance  of  the 
parish  church,  as  well  as  some  six  chapels,  while 
upon  the  bounty  of  the  mother  church  depend 


Trinity  Church,  New  York  City 


OF   AMERICA  147 

numerous  charitable  organisations  as  well  as 
many  indigent  churches  in  various  sections  of 
the  city. 

The  charities  of  Old  Trinity  and  its  chapels 
are  numerous  and  liberal.  The  Employment  So- 
ciety connected  with  the  parish  furnishes  sewing 
for  destitute  women,  while  the  Sisterhood  of  the 
Holy  Cross  provides  for  the  care  of  the  poor 
and  sick,  and  Trinity  Chapel  House  gives  shel- 
ter and  sustenance  to  the  aged  communicants  of 
the  Chapel.  Parochial  and  mission  schools  are 
maintained,  as  well  as  an  infirmary  for  the  sick 
of  the  parish.  A  Working  Club  brings  together 
working  men,  providing  them  club  rooms  and  a 
watchful  care,  and  at  the  last  a  decent  burial. 

Trinity  Association  is  composed  of  gentlemen 
active  in  the  charitable  work  of  the  parish.  It 
supports  the  Mission  Home,  including  a  young 
men's  guild,  a  boys'  guild,  a  summer  seashore 
sanitarium,  and  a  relief  bureau,  and  it  dispenses 
entertainment  for  the  needy,  as  well  as  main- 
taining a  school  to  train  young  girls  in  house- 
work. 

In  the  churchyard  around  Old  Trinity  lie 
many  who  have  been  conspicuous  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  country.  Here  rest  Alexander 
Hamilton,  Judge  Watts,  and  Robert  Fulton. 
One  monument  recalls  to  the  passersby  on 
Broadway  the  story  of  those  who  died  in  the 
British  prison  ships,  and  whose  remains  still  re- 


148          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

pose  within  the  shadow  of  the  first  Church  of 
England  in  New  York  City.  Here,  too,  we  find 
the  last  resting  place  of  Captain  James  Law- 
rence who  lost  his  life  defending  his  battleship, 
Chesapeake,  against  the  British  frigate  Shan- 
non in  the  war  of  1812.  The  oldest  tombstone 
in  the  churchyard  is  dated  1681.  It  is  that  of  a 
child,  Richard  Churcher,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
five  years  and  five  months,  and  whose  sandstone 
slab,  with  skull,  cross  bones  and  winged  hour- 
glass, has  endured  to  this  day. 

ST.   PAUL'S 

The  most  interesting  of  the  Trinity  chapels  is 
St.  Paul's,  at  Broadway  and  Vessey  Street. 
Standing  now  with  its  back  to  Broadway,  the 
present  building  was  begun  in  1756,  and  is  the 
oldest  church  edifice  in  the  city  of  New  York. 
In  the  graveyard  are  monuments  to  the  Irish 
patriot  Emmet,  G.  F.  Cooke,  the  actor;  and  a 
memorial  to  General  Montgomery,  who  fell  at 
Quebec,  and  whose  body  was  brought  to  New 
York  for  a  second  interment.  Authorised  by 
Congress  this  monument  was  bought  in  France 
by  Benjamin  Franklin  and  brought  over  in  an 
American  privateer  that  was  captured  by  a  Brit- 
ish gunboat  before  it  could  land  the  memorial 
safely.  The  old  organ  of  St.  Paul's,  which  was 
played  on  the  day  of  Washington's  inaugura- 


OF    AMERICA  149 

tion,  was  afterwards  sold  to   St.  Michael's  in 
Marblehead,  Massachusetts. 

Among  the  square  pews  of  St.  Paul's  are  those 
occupied  by  Washington  and  General  Clinton, 
indicated  by  tablets  set  in  the  adjacent  walls. 
During  the  days  of  the  English  occupation  Lord 
Howe,  Major  Andre,  and  Sir  Guy  Carleton  are 
also  said  to  have  worshipped  here.  Washington 
indeed  attended  service  in  St.  Paul's  the  day  of 
his  inauguration. 

ST.   JOHN'S 

St.  John's  Chapel  in  Varick  Street,  another 
chapel  of  Trinity,  built  in  1807,  is  still  pic- 
turesquely standing.  At  one  time  its  neighbour- 
hood was  one  of  the  most  fashionable  in  the  city, 
having  a  park,  St.  John's  Park,  the  use  of  which 
was  restricted  to  neighbouring  householders,  as 
Gramercy  Park  is  to-day. 

ST.   MARK'S 

St.  Mark's  Church,  at  Tenth  Street  and 
Second  Avenue,  occupies  the  site  of  an  older 
Dutch  church,  an  interesting  relic  of  which  is 
preserved  in  a  memorial  stone  to  old  Peter  Stuy- 
vesant,  captain-general  and  governor  in  chief  of 
New  Amsterdam,  who  died  in  1675.  A  great 
grandson,  also  named  Peter  Stuyvesant,  and  a 


150          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Trinity  vestryman,  gave  the  site  and  surround- 
ing lots  to  St.  Mark's,  whose  cornerstone  was  laid 
in  1795.  It  was  in  this  churchyard  that  the  re- 
mains of  A.  T.  Stewart  were  laid  to  rest,  and 
from  which  they  were  afterward  mysteriously 
stolen. 


OF   AMERICA  151 


CHRIST   CHURCH 

BENNINGTON,    VERMONT 

THE  first  church  building  erected  by  the 
parish  of  Christ  Church  at  Bennington, 
Vermont,   was   dedicated   on   February 
11,  1762.     The  funds  that  could  be  raised  for 
its  construction  were  not  large  and  the  little  edi- 
fice was  simple  in  style,  being  but  two  stories  in 
height  and  utterly  devoid  of  a  steeple.     The 
pews  were  of  the  variety  then  in  vogue,  square 
and  high-backed,  though  the  railings  along  their 
tops  were  unusually  ornamental. 

This  church  building  not  only  served  the  in- 
habitants of  Bennington  for  a  "town-hall" 
where  all  gatherings  of  any  importance  were 
held,  but  its  upper  story  also  did  duty  as  a  school. 
Many  notable  meetings  have  taken  place  within 
its  walls.  Among  the  most  memorable  of  these 
was  a  service  of  public  thanksgiving  when  the 
news  reached  Bennington  of  the  capture  of 
Ticonderoga  by  the  "  Green  Mountain  Boys," 
an  occasion  of  such  importance  that  Ethan  Allen 
made  a  hurried  visit  to  his  home  in  Bennington 
in  order  to  be  present,  bringing  with  him  a  host 
of  prisoners  of  war. 


152          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

In  Christ  Church  the  State  legislature  first 
met,  and  later,  in  default  of  a  courthouse,  it 
was  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most  noted  murder 
trials  in  the  early  days  of  Vermont.  At  an 
early  period,  too,  the  little  parish  was  torn  by  the 
great  American  question  of  slavery,  in  1778 
dissensions  arising  among  the  members  over  this 
national  difficulty.  The  cause  of  the  freedman 
won,  when,  on  November  18,  1779,  a  negro 
woman  who  had  been  taken  captive  on  Lake 
Champlain  with  a  number  of  British  officers  and 
troops,  publicly  received  her  freedom  in  the 
little  Episcopal  house  of  worship.  The  opposi- 
tion to  slavery  grew  more  and  more  intense, 
while  the  minority  in  favour  of  it  became  more 
decided  in  the  parish,  until  disruption  would  have 
threatened  the  Church  had  not  the  rector  and  the 
more  peace-loving  members  averted  such  a  dis- 
aster. 

With  the  exception  of  this  one  difference  of 
opinion,  nothing  has  marred  the  harmony  that 
has  existed  in  the  parish  since  its  organisation. 
The  little  church,  remodelled  and  fitted  up  in 
more  modern  style  since  the  early  days,  is  still 
occupied  for  divine  worship. 


OF   AMERICA  153 


THE    OLD    SHIP    CHURCH 

HINGHAM,    MASSACHUSETTS 

IN  the  old  town  of  Hingham,  Massachusetts, 
stands  one  of  the  quaint  religious  land- 
marks  of  New   England — the   Old   Ship 
meeting-house,  which  dates  from  the  year  1680. 
So  skilfully  was  its  framework  put  together  and 
so  carefully  were  the  timbers  selected  that  it 
seems  destined  to  survive  still  longer  as  a  memo- 
rial to  the  piety  of  its  early  builders. 

The  land  whereon  the  Old  Ship  Church  was 
built  was  purchased  from  one  Captain  Hobart, 
and  within  six  months  from  the  time  the  build- 
ing was  begun  it  was  ready  for  occupancy,  being 
dedicated  to  divine  worship  in  January,  1682. 
Its  style  of  architecture  exemplifies  the  severe 
taste  of  the  New  England  colonists;  it  is  rec- 
tangular in  shape  and  two  stories  in  height,  with 
a  truncated  pyramidal  roof  surmounted  by  a 
belfry,  which  in  addition  to  holding  the  bell  also 
served  as  a  lookout  station.  The  peculiar  ap- 
pearance of  the  church  is  responsible  for  the  title 
by  which  it  has  so  long  been  known — the  Old 
Ship.  Surmounting  the  belfry  is  a  weather- 
vane,  while  from  the  bell  a  rope  dangles  down 


154          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

in  the  centre  aisle  to  the  floor  of  the  church.  A 
two-storied  porch  projects  from  the  middle  of 
the  south  side.  The  only  material  change  made 
in  the  exterior  during  the  two  and  one-quarter 
centuries  since  it  was  erected  is  the  small  porch 
added  to  the  west  side. 

The  interior  of  the  church  is  as  bare  and  pro- 
saic as  those  of  other  early  churches  in  New 
England,  all  ideas  of  elaboration  seeming  to 
exhaust  themselves  upon  the  belfry.  The  outer 
walls  of  the  church  were  devoid  of  paint,  while 
the  interior  lacked  the  luxury  of  any  heating 
apparatus.  The  congregation  worshipped  under 
bare  rafters,  and  sat  on  the  plainest  of  wooden 
benches,  hewn  out  by  hand  and  without  backs. 
During  the  many  years  that  have  intervened 
since  the  Reverend  Peter  Hobart  preached 
against  the  sin  of  hoop-skirts  and  the  congre- 
gation gathered  to  discuss  means  of  preventing 
Indian  depredations,  there  has  been  virtually  no 
change  in  the  interior  of  this  house  of  worship 
except  for  the  addition  of  the  stoves  which  super- 
seded the  old  foot-warmers,  and  of  the  more 
comfortable  seats  that  were  put  in  about  1817. 

Prominent  in  the  front  of  the  church  stood 
a  pew  for  the  elders  and  another  for  the  dea- 
cons, while  a  third  was  set  aside  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  widow  of  the  first  pastor.  The 
pulpit,  reached  by  a  stairway  on  one  side,  is  a 
massive  structure  which  is,  nevertheless,  over- 


rf- 


OF   AMERICA  155 

shadowed  by  a  curiously  contrived  canopy  an- 
swering for  a  sounding-board.  The  surround- 
ings of  the  church  are  quite  in  harmony  with  the 
building  itself,  being  entirely  of  an  older  world 
than  the  modern  railway  station  in  full  sight  of 
the  ancient  edifice. 

In  1763  a  meeting  of  the  congregation  took 
place  to  consider  the  assigning  of  seats  to  "  per- 
sons skilled  in  musick,"  and  in  1802  a  bass  viol 
was  purchased  to  aid  in  the  service.  Additions 
of  a  violin,  a  flute,  a  bassoon  and  a  clarinet  fol- 
lowed, gradually  paving  the  way  for  the  intro- 
duction of  an  organ  in  1866. 

In  point  of  usefulness  as  well  as  antiquity  no 
church  edifice  in  our  country  has  a  more  enviable 
record.  Bishop  Meade  in  his  eulogy  of  the 
church  says  that  there  exists  nowhere  within  the 
original  limits  of  the  United  States  a  house  for 
public  worship  as  old  as  the  meeting-house  of  the 
First  Parish  in  Hingham  which  still  continues 
to  be  used  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was 
originally  erected  and  still  remains  on  the  site 
where  it  was  built.  Like  many  another  early 
New  England  meeting-house,  the  Old  Ship  has 
also  done  other  service  than  merely  providing  a 
place  for  worship.  For  more  than  one  hundred 
years  it  was  used  for  all  town  meetings  and  vil- 
lage gatherings. 


156          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


CAROLINE  CHURCH 

SETAUKET,    LONG    ISLAND 

THE  organisation  of  the  first  parish  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  on 
Long  Island  was  accomplished  at  Setau- 
ket  in  1725,  and  in  five  years  the  communicants 
were  financially  able  to  erect  a  house  of  worship. 
With  the  exception  of  this  little  church  at  Setau- 
ket  none  of  the  original  Episcopalian  Church 
structures  on  Long  Island  are  standing  at  the 
present  day. 

Founded  in  a  settlement  in  which  staunch 
Puritans  greatly  outnumbered  them,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  little  parish  were  bound  the  more 
closely  together  by  the  persecution  of  their 
neighbours.  The  town  meeting  went  so  far  as 
to  enjoin  the  rector  from  the  use  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  at  any  public  meeting  lest  he 
distress  "some  tender  conscience,"  and  things 
steadily  tended  from  bad  to  worse. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Episcopalian  clergy  held 
in  New  York  City  October  5,  1704,  the  rector  of 
Trinity  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  while 
missionaries  were  being  sent  .abroad  to  convert 


OF   AMERICA  157 

the  heathen,  yet  almost  at  the  doors  of  New 
York — at  the  eastern  end  of  Long  Island — a 
handful  of  churchmen  and  women  planted  in  the 
midst  of  Puritans  were  without  comfort  and 
provision  for  their  spiritual  guidance.  From 
that  time  the  needs  of  the  Long  Island  church- 
men received  greater  attention,  and  missionaries 
visited  them  at  stated  intervals.  The  Reverend 
John  Sharpe,  the  chaplain  of  the  military  forces 
of  New  York,  included  Setauket  regularly  in 
his  tours  of  inspection  and  invariably  held  serv- 
ice there. 

Upon  its  erection  in  1730  the  little  church  at 
Setauket  had  originally  been  named  "  Christ 
Church,"  but  when  Queen  Caroline,  the  wife  of 
George  II.,  sent  over  a  communion  service  of 
silver,  and  linen  for  the  altar,  the  style 
in  recognition  of  this  gracious  act  was 
changed  to  "  The  Caroline  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church." 

In  spite  of  a  lack  of  funds  that  forbade  the 
supporting  of  a  resident  rector,  and  of  continued 
opposition  to  all  ritualistic  forms  of  worship,  the 
little  parish  prospered,  and  by  1844  numbered 
some  two  hundred  communicants.  Many  a  mis- 
sionary spirit  went  forth  from  it,  and  parishes 
here  and  there  along  the  whole  of  the  southern 
coast  of  Long  Island  regard  it  as  their  parent 
church.  A  number  of  its  parish  rectors  have 
been  called  to  other  positions  of  high  trust,  and 


158          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

when  its  centennial  services  were  held  in  1830, 
its  sons  and  daughters,  with  their  children  and 
grandchildren,  gathered  in  great  numbers  to 
show  their  reverence  for  the  "Mother  Church 
of  Long  Island." 


OF   AMERICA  159 


THE   ROMAN    CATHOLIC 
CATHEDRAL 

THE    CITY    OF    MEXICO 

BY  far  the  most  gorgeous  church  building 
in  North  America  is  the  Roman  Catholic 
Cathedral  (Church  of  the  Asuncion  de 
Maria  Santissima)  in  the  City  of  Mexico,  which 
is  moreover,  in  point  of  area  covered,  one  of  the 
largest  churches  in  the  world. 

The  Cathedral  was  built  according  to  instruc- 
tions from  Philip  II.  of  Spain,  and  the  process 
of  erection  consumed  almost  a  century,  from 
1573  to  1667.  The  cost  of  construction  is  esti- 
mated to  have  been  two  million  dollars,  though 
most  of  the  actual  labour  was  performed  by 
slaves.  The  form  of  the  building  is  that  of  a 
cross,  and  it  is  four  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
feet  long,  two  hundred  feet  wide,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-six  feet  high  at  the  dome,  while 
its  massive  twin  towers  rise  to  a  height  of  more 
than  two  hundred  feet. 

The  ground  occupied  by  the  Cathedral  is  his- 
torical, being  the  site  of  the  great  pyramidal 
teocalli,  or  temple  of  the  Aztec  god  Huitzilo- 


160          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

pachtli.  The  principal  fa9ade  has  three  en- 
trances and  is  flanked  by  two  tall  towers.  At 
the  base  of  one  of  these  stands  the  celebrated 
Aztec  calendar,  an  enormous  granite  monolith 
which  was  brought  there  at  the  expense  of  infin- 
ite labour  in  1790. 

The  interior  is  very  rich,  and  the  building  is 
a  treasure  house  of  art,  since  for  centuries  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Mexico  was  rich 
enough  to  command  the  best  art  products  in 
the  world.  The  Cathedral  is  a  superb  memorial 
of  the  time,  indeed,  when  the  Catholic  Church 
possessed  two-thirds  of  the  entire  wealth  of 
Mexico. 

The  Altar  of  the  Kings,  in  the  apse,  which  at- 
tracts the  attention  of  the  visitor  immediately,  is 
made  wholly  of  highly  wrought  and  polished 
silver,  and  is  covered  with  a  profusion  of  crosses 
and  ornaments  of  pure  gold.  In  the  nearby 
aisles  are  buried  many  whose  names  are  closely 
associated  with  the  history  of  the  Mexican  na- 
tion. To  this  same  altar  in  1811  were  brought 
for  burial  the  heads  of  Hidalgo,  Allende,  Al- 
dema  and  Jimines  from  the  prison  of  Guanjusro, 
after  they  had  been  condemned  to  death  and 
executed,  after  having  been  excommunicated  by 
the  Church  as  heretics  and  traitors.  Before  this 
altar,  also,  on  May  22,  1822,  Augustin  de  Itur- 
bide  was  crowned  the  first  emperor  of  Mexico, 
with  the  title  of  Augustin  I.,  and  two  years  later, 


OF   AMERICA  161 

after  his  execution,  his  body  was  brought  to  lie 
beneath  it.  Forty  years  afterward  took  place 
the  coronation  of  the  ill-fated  Maximilian.  In 
1857  the  triumphant  government  of  Juarez 
seized  the  golden  candlesticks  and  the  gold  and 
jewelled  statue  of  the  Assumption,  to  procure 
through  their  sale  funds  for  the  new  Republican 
party.  This  statue,  bedecked  as  it  was  with 
diamonds,  has  been  estimated  to  have  been  worth 
over  a  million  dollars. 

Along  each  side  of  the  central  altar  runs  a 
balustrade,  enclosing  a  space  some  eight  feet  in 
width  and  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  feet 
in  length.  This  balustrade  is  four  or  five  feet  in 
height  and  the  top  rail  from  six  to  eight  inches 
in  thickness.  On  the  top  of  this  hand-rail  and 
about  six  or  eight  feet  apart  are  human  images, 
most  beautifully  wrought  and  about  two  feet 
in  height.  These  are  utilised  as  candelabra.  The 
balustrade,  the  hand-rail  and  the  images  are 
made  from  an  amalgam  of  gold,  silver  and  cop- 
per. An  estimate  can  be  made  of  their  value 
from  the  fact  that  some  years  ago  an  offer  was 
made  to  purchase  it  complete,  replace  it  with  one 
of  solid  silver,  and  pay  an  additional  million  dol- 
lars into  the  bargain.  Here  and  there  about  the 
Cathedral  are  other  similar  hand-rails  and  balus- 
trades, in  smaller  proportions — in  all  some  four 
hundred  feet — made  from  this  same  amalgam. 
These  balustrades  encircle  six  altars  in  various 


162          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

portions  of  the  building,  there  being  no  less  than 
fourteen  chapels  altogether. 

In  the  chapter  house  near  by  is  a  Madonna 
and  Child  said  to  be  a  genuine  Murillo.  Other 
fine  paintings  hang  here  and  there  in  the  Cathe- 
dral. 

The  church  bell — the  Santa  Maria  Guadalupe 
— is  nineteen  feet  long,  and  with  the  exception 
of  the  great  bell  in  Moscow  is  the  largest  in  the 
world. 

Throughout  the  edifice  appear  vases,  paint- 
ings, images  and  ornaments  of  silver,  gold,  and 
precious  stones;  in  some  portions  seeming  to 
reach  from  floor  to  ceiling.  Though  the  Catho- 
lic Church  does  not  invite  investigation  into  its 
wealth,  even  the  precious  metals  and  jewels  that 
are  found  displayed  in  the  Cathedral  of  Mexico 
strike  the  beholder  with  wonder.  And  when  one 
takes  into  consideration  the  treasure  that  lies 
hidden  away  from  sight  in  the  vast  vaults  of 
the  Cathedral,  he  gains  an  idea  of  the  immense 
wealth  that  has  been  lavished  upon  the  church. 
Instinctively  the  mind  recalls  Montezuma  and 
the  riches  that  were  brought  forward  to  pur- 
chase his  ransom. 


OF    AMERICA  163 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 

SOUTHAMPTON,,    LONG    ISLAND 

EARLY  in  the  spring  of  the  year  1640  a 
little  band  of  staunch  Presbyterians  set 
out  from  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  to  seek 
a  home  where  they  might  worship  God  in  accord- 
ance with  the  dictates  of  their  own  consciences. 
They  sailed  along  the  coast  of  Long  Island  and 
made  their  first  landing  on  May  10  at  its  west 
end.  This,  however,  brought  them  into  too  close 
contact  with  the  Dutch  in  Manhattan  and  led 
to  unpleasant  relations.  Re-embarking,  the  little 
company  sailed  eastward  again  and  on  the  12th 
of  the  next  month  made  the  first  permanent  set- 
tlement on  the  east  coast  of  Long  Island,  giving 
it  the  name  of  "  Southampton." 

They  were  joined  presently  by  others  from 
their  old  home  in  Lynn,  for  in  November,  1640, 
the  Reverend  Abraham  Pierson  was  ordained  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  in  Lynn  and  together  with 
seven  or  eight  Presbyterian  families  from  that 
section  set  sail  also  for  Southampton.  As  the 
months  went  on  many  others  were  added  to  their 
number.  Some  who  came  from  Europe,  after  a 
brief  stay  in  Lynn,  went  on  to  Long  Island  and 


164          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

became  identified  there  with  those  of  their  own 
faith,  so  that  the  Southampton  settlement  flour- 
ished, and  the  membership  of  the  little  church 
increased  rapidly. 

In  its  form  of  church  government  the  settle- 
ment was  independent,  the  name  Presbyterian 
not  being  associated  with  the  organisation  until 
seventy  years  later,  when  the  town  donated  land 
for  the  erection  of  a  new  house  of  worship.  This 
deed  was  made  to  the  "Presbyterian  Church." 
That  the  titles  of  "  Deacon  "  and  "  Elder  "  were 
in  use  previous  to  this  date  is  evidenced  by  a  num- 
ber of  gravestones  in  the  little  churchyard.  In 
September,  1716,  the  church  requested  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Philadelphia  to  send  to  them,  as  min- 
ister, the  Reverend  Samuel  Gelston,  promising 
thereafter  to  "  subject  themselves  to  the  Presby- 
tery in  the  Lord."  The  first  meeting  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Long  Island  was  held  in  the 
Southampton  Church  April  17,  1717.  The  iso- 
lation of  the  church  resulted  in  its  being  left 
without  representation  in  many  later  meetings 
of  the  Synod,  but  the  members  have  regarded 
themselves  as  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  ever  since  their  call  to  the  Philadelphia 
Presbytery  in  1716. 

Soon  after  the  formation  of  the  colony,  in 
1640,  a  log  church  building  was  erected,  a  simple 
and  inexpensive  structure,  representing  the  la- 
bour of  the  members'  own  hands.  Ten  years 


OF   AMERICA  165 

afterward  the  building  was  leased  to  one  Thomas 
Goldsmith  with  the  provision  that  he  maintain 
it  for  three  years  as  "  an  ordinary  for  strangers," 
and  in  March,  1651,  the  erection  of  a  new  house 
of  worship  was  undertaken,  the  new  building 
measuring  twenty-four  by  twenty  feet.  It  was 
ready  for  occupancy  in  1653  and  served  the  con- 
gregation until  1707,  when  a  third  structure  was 
put  up.  In  the  interim  between  the  disposal  of 
the  first  house  of  worship  and  the  completion  of 
the  second,  religious  services  took  place  regularly 
in  the  house  of  one  of  the  elders  of  the  church. 
The  church  erected  in  1707  continued  to  serve 
as  a  house  of  worship  for  the  congregation  until 
1844.  In  1821  it  was  thoroughly  remodelled, 
but,  being  found  too  small  some  twenty  years 
later  to  accommodate  the  congregation,  was  sold 
to  a  little  band  of  Methodists  whose  church  or- 
ganisation had  just  been  effected,  the  Presby- 
terian Church  then  erecting  for  themselves  the 
edifice  that  is  now  in  use. 


166          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


THE  FIRST  CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH 

DOVER,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 

THE  early  colonists  who  settled  in  and 
about  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  cannot 
be  said  to  have  fled  from  any  persecu- 
tion. A  more  material  cause  occasioned  their  re- 
moval to  this  locality — the  better  opportunity 
to  ply  their  trade  of  fishermen.  Yet  though 
they  were  a  simple  folk,  rude  and  uncultured 
when  they  came  to  Dover  in  1638,  they  brought 
with  them  their  chosen  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
and  during  the  following  year  erected  a  rude 
church,  built  of  logs  roughly  hewn.  The  walls 
were  provided  for  protection  against  the  weather 
with  a  coat  of  plaster  both  inside  and  out.  The 
minister  who  came  with  the  colonists  declined  to 
stay  after  the  first  year,  since  the  living  was  pre- 
carious and  he  was  unable  to  reconcile  himself  to 
the  action  of  the  members  of  the  Dover  congre- 
gation in  excluding  all  whose  creed  did  not  har- 
monise with  their  own. 

These  Dover  colonists  were  particularly  bent 
on  having  their  own  way  in  worship.    The  ear- 


The  First  Congregational  Church,  Dover,  New  Hampshire 


OF   AMERICA  167 

lier  settlers  combated  most  vigorously  an  attempt 
made  by  Quakers  to  secure  land  for  a  settle- 
ment in  their  immediate  vicinity,  so  much  so 
that  after  being  roughly  handled,  the  Quakers 
decided  to  look  for  some  other  spot  in  which  to 
pitch  their  tents.  The  intolerance  of  the  Dover 
fishermen  was  a  matter  of  conscience,  however, 
and  not  of  worldly  policy;  for  they  sincerely 
believed  toleration  of  other  creeds  and  other  ways 
of  living  than  their  own  was  sinful.  As  time 
went  on  they  became  more  instead  of  less  intoler- 
ant, and  religious  annals  unite  in  the  statement 
that  the  Dover  Congregational  Church  was  one 
of  the  very  last  to  uphold  the  right  of  the  Church 
to  baptise  none  but  the  children  of  its  communi- 
cants. It  was  only  at  a  late  day,  and  under  con- 
siderable pressure,  that  the  church  adopted  the 
"  Half- Way  Covenant." 

On  June  28,  1689,  in  the  French  and  Indian 
War,  came  the  great  massacre  that  involved  all 
of  New  England  as  well  as  the  greater  part  of 
New  York  in  its  atrocities.  Of  the  membership 
of  the  Dover  Church,  no  less  than  fifty  were 
killed  or  carried  away  into  captivity.  In  view  of 
the  constant  dread  that  lurked  in  the  minds  of 
these  simple  people,  it  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise 
that  the  beating  of  a  drum  was  their  signal  to 
meet  for  worship  at  the  little  church.  The  ring- 
ing of  a  bell  would  have  served  to  notify  the 
savages  of  the  absence  of  many  households  at 


168          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

church  and  of  the  consequent  opportunity  for 
pillage. 

Sturdy  in  physique,  these  Dover  fishermen  ob- 
tained a  livelihood  where  many  another  people 
would  have  starved.  They  lived  in  a  homely 
fashion  and  though  their  talk  was  rough  and 
their  bearing  toward  each  other  and  to  the  world 
austere,  at  heart  they  were  honest,  God-fearing 
men. 

The  noted  ecclesiastical  quarrel  between 
Knolly  and  Lakham  took  place  in  the  little 
church  at  Dover.  The  Puritan,  Knolly,  marched 
into  the  meeting-house  armed  with  his  musket 
in  one  hand  and  his  Bible  in  the  other.  The 
manner  in  which  he  carried  his  Bible,  "  mounted 
on  a  halbert  as  an  ensign,"  was  meant  to  show 
that  he  depended  upon  his  understanding  of  the 
Word  of  God  as  one  of  the  most  powerful  weap- 
ons with  which  to  overcome  his  opponent.  The 
governor  came  up  by  boat  to  Dover,  to  act  as 
mediator,  and  finally,  after  considerable  argu- 
ment, prevailed  upon  the  two  adversaries  to  per- 
mit him  to  appoint  a  commission  of  three  men, 
in  whom  they  both  had  confidence,  to  settle  the 
matter.  This  committee  deciding  that  both 
Knolly  and  Lakham  were  in  the  wrong,  natu- 
rally each  contestant  felt  himself  aggrieved  by 
their  judgment. 

For  that  matter  every  citizen  at  that  time  re- 
sented outside  interference  with  his  church  and 


OF   AMERICA  169 

political  rights.  When  a  tree  was  found  marked 
with  an  arrow-head — a  token  of  ownership 
claimed  by  some  absentee — the  tree  was  promptly 
cut  down,  since  the  ownership  of  the  tree  would 
involve  the  ownership  of  the  land  upon  which 
it  grew. 

The  little  Dover  meeting-house  was  witness  of 
still  another  notable  incident  in  the  history  of  the 
Colony.  Once  when  a  sheriff  came  up  to  Dover 
from  Massachusetts  to  collect  taxes  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  which 
claimed  New  Hampshire  as  its  outlying  terri- 
tory, the  residents  of  Dover  resisted  the  levy  as 
an  instance  of  taxation  without  representation, 
and  the  entire  population  turned  out  to  the  little 
meeting-house  to  confront  the  minion  of  the 
law.  Upon  the  sheriff's  attempt  to  arrest  the 
ringleaders  in  the  opposition  to  the  government 
a  serious  riot  followed,  and  one  liberty-loving 
woman  hurled  the  pulpit  Bible  at  the  sheriff  so 
hard  that  she  knocked  him  down.  So  roughly 
did  the  people  of  Dover  generally  handle  him 
and  his  assistants  that  in  making  his  report  on 
the  circumstances,  he  said,  "We  were  glad  to 
escape  with  our  lives." 

In  the  early  days  fortifications  made  of  logs 
raised  upon  earthworks  surrounded  the  meeting- 
house in  the  form  of  a  square,  portions  of  which 
embankment  are  still  traceable.  At  each  cor- 
ner stood  a  circular  tower,  upon  which  during 


1TO          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

the  hours  of  worship  sentinels  were  mounted. 
Out  of  this  enclosure  the  settlers  made  many  a 
sortie  to  drive  off  Indians  that  had  surrounded 
the  meeting-house. 

In  1655  the  parish  built  a  new  meeting-house 
on  the  site  of  the  old.  The  description  of  this 
house  of  worship  is  meagre,  but  that  it  was  of 
ample  dimensions  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  said  to  have  had  six  windows  and  twelve 
doors.  Its  walls  were  of  plank  and  the  roof  of 
tile.  Unlike  its  predecessor,  this  building  was 
floored.  In  1758  still  another  structure  suc- 
ceeded it,  which  in  its  turn  was  later  altered  into 
a  dwelling  and  sold. 

The  present  church  dates  from  1829,  and  its 
congregation  are  noted  to-day  for  their  intense 
love  of  spiritual  and  political  liberty. 


OF    AMERICA  171 


SAN  XAVIER  DEL  BAG 

TUCSON,  ARIZONA 

THE  brave  missionary  work  of  the  Spanish 
priests  in  America  may  be  traced  in 
numerous  chapels  throughout  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona,  most  of  which  are  now  only 
ruins.  Near  Tucson  is  one  of  the  oldest  of 
these  quaint  mission  churches — that  of  San  Xa- 
vier  del  Bac.  So  quaint  is  it  in  design  and  so 
beautiful  in  architectural  execution  that  one  first 
beholding  it  can  scarcely  help  an  exclamation  of 
surprise  and  pleasure.  Nowhere  in  the  South- 
west is  there  anything  that  approaches  it  in 
beauty  of  form  and  colour,  or  melancholy  charm. 
Time  has  dealt  ruthlessly  with  the  green 
wooden  balconies  in  its  front  and  has  broken  out 
their  floors,  but  the  original  sweet-toned  bronze 
bells  still  hang  in  one  of  the  towers,  and  the 
pediment  of  the  facade  is  ornamented  with 
escutcheons,  lions  rampant,  and  wreaths  of  foli- 
age. Niches  here  and  there  still  hold  dilapi- 
dated bizarre  statues,  and  ornate  pilasters  flank 
the  main  entrance — the  whole  moulded  in  stucco 
upon  a  foundation  of  brick.  Spots  from  which 
the  plaster  has  fallen  away  disclose  the  fact  that 


172          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

the  pilasters  are  held  together  by  a  centering 
rod  of  timber. 

The  designer,  whoever  he  may  have  been,  was 
evidently  inspired  by  Venetian-Byzantine  tradi- 
tions. The  church  is  roofed  with  numerous 
simple  domes  and  half  domes.  The  interiors  of 
these  are  frescoed  with  angels  and  evangelists, 
and  the  chancel  walls  almost  covered  with  gild- 
ing, now  stained  and  battered,  while  the  painted 
and  gilded  lions  on  the  chancel  rails  inevitably 
recall  St.  Mark's  in  Venice. 

Though  the  inscription  of  the  date  of  the 
building  of  the  church  is  partially  obscured, 
with  care  it  is  discernible  in  the  facade — 1768. 
The  present  edifice  is  situated  upon  the  site  oc- 
cupied by  the  original  mission  chapel  built  about 
1654.  Attached  to  the  main  chancel  piers  are 
large  angels,  with  bannerets,  whose  draperies 
are  formed  of  gummed  muslin  or  a  preparation 
similar  to  papier-mache,  while  a  painted  and 
gilded  Virgin  looks  down  from  a  high  altar 
niche.  The  whole  interior  has  an  air  of  me- 
dieval richness  and  obscurity  most  unusual  in 
the  Western  hemisphere.  Since  the  foundation 
of  the  church  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  it  is  said  that  its  services  have  never 
been  discontinued. 


OF   AMERICA  173 


THE  DUTCH  REFORMED  CHURCH 

HERKIMER,   NEW   YORK 


A[ONG  the  quaintest  and  most  curious  of 
antiquities    in    New    York    State    are 
the     ancient     stone     churches     erected 
through  the  mediation  of  Queen  Anne  on  the 
banks  of  the  Mohawk  River.     Their  number  is 
now  reduced  to  three  —  Queen  Anne's  Chapel  at 
Fort  Hunter  and  the  Dutch  churches  of  Caugh- 
nawaga    and    Fort    Herkimer.     Of    these    the 
church  at  Fort  Herkimer  is  the  only  one  still 
used  for  divine  worship. 

It  is  evident  from  its  heavy  masonry  that  this 
church  was  intended  to  last  for  ages,  for  not 
only  are  its  walls  three  feet  thick,  but  the  cor- 
ners of  the  building  are  buttressed  and  the  roof 
runs  to  a  solid,  lofty  peak  like  a  pyramid.  This 
extra  strength  was  to  serve  as  protection  against 
attacks  by  Indians,  as  in  many  another  early 
church.  Unlike  many  other  churches  known, 
this  one  exercised  foresight  in  its  building,  and 
that  it  might  provide  ample  room  for  later  set- 
tlers, was  made  much  larger  than  was  actually  re- 
quired by  the  number  of  communicants  reckoned 
in  its  fold. 


174          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Within,  a  broad  gallery,  huge  and  clumsy  in 
construction,  extends  along  three  sides,  and  un- 
gainly columns  of  untutored  carpentry  support 
the  lofty  roof.  The  pews  are  square,  with 
straight  backs.  The  pulpit  is  one  of  the  greatest 
curiosities  to  be  found  in  ecclesiastical  architec- 
ture in  America.  Shaped  in  the  form  of  a 
drum,  it  is  perched  on  a  pedestal  at  what  at  first 
seems  almost  a  fearful  height,  and  is  reached 
by  a  steep  and  winding  staircase.  Having 
safely  accomplished  the  ascent  of  these  nar- 
row, winding  stairs,  the  minister  literally  looked 
down  upon  his  flock,  who  sat  with  necks  bent 
back  in  their  endeavour  to  see  and  hear  him.  A 
gaudy  red  cushion,  upon  which  rested  the  Bible, 
decorated  the  pulpit,  while  on  a  bracket  near  by 
and  in  full  view  of  both  minister  and  congrega- 
tion, stood  the  hourglass.  Above  the  pulpit, 
like  an  extinguisher,  hung  the  ancient  sound- 
ing board. 

For  over  one  hundred  years  after  its  erection 
the  church  was  without  flooring  or  means  of 
heating.  It  was  the  scene  of  many  an  Indian  at- 
tack in  both  the  Indian  wars  and  the  Revolution. 
During  the  Revolution,  however,  Sir  William 
Johnson,  and  later  his  protege,  Joseph  Brant, 
assumed  the  protection  of  the  church,  and  it 
escaped  serious  injury,  while  its  stout  walls  made 
an  excellent  refuge  for  the  settlers  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood. 


OF   AMERICA  175 

After  the  close  of  the  war  the  parishioners 
added  a  second  story  and  thoroughly  repaired  the 
interior.  The  woodwork  about  the  pulpit  was 
decorated  with  mouldings  painted  like  a  checker- 
board in  red  and  white.  With  rare  good  judg- 
ment those  who  had  charge  of  the  restoration  of 
the  church  refrained  from  altering  the  antique 
pulpit  or  the  communion  table,  both  of  quaint 
and  old  time  pattern — the  handiwork,  no  doubt, 
of  some  honest  German  artisan  in  Frankfort  or 
Heidelberg. 

From  this  ancient  tabernacle  many  an  offshoot 
has  sprung,  and  for  many  miles  around  Herki- 
mer  may  be  found  church  organisations  which 
trace  their  origin  back  to  the  mother  church  at 
"  German  Flatts."  To-day  the  communicants 
still  occupy  the  church  building  regularly  each 
Sunday,  and  regard  it  with  a  feeling  of  most  in- 
tense reverence. 


176          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


THE  FIRST  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST 

SAYBROOK,    CONNECTICUT 

IN  1646  there  was  organised  in  the  "  Great 
Hall"  of  Saybrook,  Connecticut,  a  body 
that  was  destined  to  exercise  throughout 
the  whole  State  a  powerful  influence  in  both  ec- 
clesiastical and  political  circles.  This  organisa- 
tion, which  was  termed  the  "  First  Church  of 
Christ,"  in  the  ensuing  year  began  the  erection 
of  a  suitable  house  of  worship.  The  site  chosen 
was  at  the  end  of  the  public  square  or  "  Green." 
Of  the  plan  of  this  building  no  description  re- 
mains, nor  of  the  materials  that  entered  into  its 
construction,  though  the  protection  it  provided 
against  sudden  attacks  by  Indians  is  most  defi- 
nitely recorded. 

A  second  church  succeeded  the  first  meeting- 
house in  1681,  built  on  the  same  site.  This  sec- 
ond structure  was  plain  in  design,  as  was  usual 
in  the  early  days  of  New  England.  Its  seats 
were  plain  wooden  benches,  without  backs,  and 
were  assigned  to  members  of  the  congregation 
"  according  to  rank,  age,  office  and  estate."  Sev- 
eral leading  men  received  permission  to  build 
for  their  families,  at  their  own  expense,  square 


OF   AMERICA  177 

pews  to  the  right  of  the  pulpit.  The  pulpit  it- 
self, high  and  of  angular  construction,  was 
reached  by  a  winding  stair,  and  furnished  with 
a  Geneva  Bible,  a  Bay  Psalm  Book,  and  an  hour- 
glass by  which  the  service  could  be  strictly  timed. 
During  service  two  deacons  invariably  faced  the 
congregation,  occupying  seats  at  the  base  of  the 
pulpit,  while  the  tithing-man  with  his  fox-tail 
rod  was  stationed  where  he  could  best  observe 
the  behaviour  of  the  congregation. 

This  building  in  1726  was  replaced  by  a  third 
church  at  a  cost  of  sixteen  hundred  dollars.  By 
the  end  of  the  century  a  bell  and  a  steeple  were 
added,  and  the  bell  was  rung  regularly  at  noon- 
time, announcing  to  the  residents  of  Saybrook 
that  the  hour  for  dinner  had  arrived,  until  1840. 
Neither  of  the  first  two  church  buildings  was 
provided  with  stoves  or  any  other  means  of  keep- 
ing warm — a  condition  which  continued  in  the 
third  church  building  for  one  hundred  years 
after  it  was  erected. 

One  of  the  chief  features  of  the  third  church 
was  the  exceptionally  high  pulpit,  overhung  with 
a  huge  sounding-board,  both  being  ornamented 
with  panels  and  elaborate  mouldings.  Each 
Sunday  the  stairs  leading  to  the  pulpit  were  oc- 
cupied by  small  boys,  among  whom  great  rivalry 
existed  regarding  the  occupancy  of  the  upper 
step,  since  the  lad  so  seated  had  the  privilege  of 
opening  the  pulpit  door  for  the  minister. 


178          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

The  pews  were  square  in  form  and  ample  in 
accommodation.  Seats  were  provided  on  three 
sides,  hung  on  rude  hinges  which  permitted  them 
to  be  raised  parallel  with  the  backs,  like  choir- 
stalls,  and  afford  more  standing  room.  Around 
three  sides  of  the  building  ran  a  wide  gallery, 
heavily  and  most  substantially  built,  the  east 
wing  of  which  was  assigned  to  women  and  the 
west  to  men.  The  front  tier  of  seats  was  re- 
served for  the  "  singers,"  while  behind  this  were 
four  box  pews,  considered  the  most  desirable  of 
any  in  the  church.  In  the  extreme  rear  corner 
of  the  gallery  stood  another  box  pew,  reserved 
for  the  use  of  coloured  people,  who  were  not 
permitted  to  sit  in  any  other  portion  of  the 
church. 

In  the  second  structure  occupied  by  the  First 
Church  of  Christ  in  Saybrook  there  met  in  May, 
1708,  a  convention  called  by  the  Great  Court  of 
Connecticut,  during  the  session  of  which  the 
noted  "  Saybrook  Platform "  was  drawn  up. 
This  document,  embodying  the  Articles  of 
Faith,  the  Discipline  and  the  Authority  of  the 
forty  churches  of  Connecticut,  was  approved 
by  the  Court  and  constituted  the  ecclesiastical 
law  of  the  land,  Congregationalism  becoming 
the  state  religion. 


OF   AMERICA  179 


CHRIST  CHURCH 

WEST  HAVEN,  CONNECTICUT 

IN  the  autumn  of  the  year  1722  Connecticut 
and  indeed  all  New  England  was  startled 
by  the  announcement  that  a  number  of  the 
brightest  and  most  promising  students  of  Yale 
College  had  declared  for  Episcopacy.  Presi- 
dent Woolsey  is  quoted  as  saying  that  greater 
alarm  could  scarcely  have  been  awakened  if  the 
theological  faculty  had  proclaimed  themselves 
for  the  Church  of  Rome,  avowing  their  belief 
in  transubstantiation  and  instituting  prayers  to 
the  Virgin  Mary. 

This  event  alarmed  Congregationalism 
throughout  New  England,  filling  its  followers 
with  great  apprehension.  The  Governor  of  the 
State  threw  himself  into  the  breach,  to  aid  in 
winning  back  these  young  men  from  their  de- 
fection, but  Samuel  Johnson,  who  had  already 
been  ordained  to  the  ministry  in  the  Congrega- 
tional Church,  and  his  associate  tutor  in  Yale 
College,  Daniel  Browne,  stood  firm  in  their 
change  of  faith.  Late  in  the  fall  of  this  same 
year  they  sailed  together  for  England  and  were 
regularly  ordained  in  March,  1723,  in  old  St. 


180          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Martin's-in-the-Fields,  in  London.  Two  weeks 
afterward,  so  fate  would  have  it,  Daniel  Browne 
died  of  smallpox  and  was  buried  in  the  church 
of  St.  Dunstan's-in-the-West,  his  only  regret 
being  that  it  had  been  denied  to  him  to  serve  in 
his  new  faith  the  people  of  his  native  village  of 
West  Haven. 

Johnson,  returning  to  New  England,  found, 
however,  a  number  of  staunch  churchmen  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  West  Haven  who  greeted  him 
most  cordially,  recognising  at  what  a  sacrifice  he 
had  remained  faithful  to  his  convictions.  They 
and  their  families  gathered  round  him,  though 
they  were  too  poor  to  erect  a  church  building, 
and  had  to  meet  for  services  wherever  accommo- 
dations could  be  found. 

The  organisation  of  the  parish,  such  as  it  was, 
dates  from  the  return  of  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Johnson  from  England  in  1723.  So  scattered 
were  the  parishioners  that  they  before  long  di- 
vided into  two  parts,  one  at  Stratford,  under 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Johnson,  and  the  other  the 
West  Haven  community  under  the  Reverend 
Jonathan  Arnold,  who  had  served  for  several 
years  as  pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church 
in  West  Haven  before  he  declared  for  the 
Church  of  England.  He  was  no  doubt  influ- 
enced in  this  decision  by  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Johnson  on  his  occasional  visits  to  West  Haven. 
At  all  events,  he  visited  Stratford  on  Easter 


OF    AMERICA  181 

Day,  1724,  was  dismissed  from  charge  of  the 
Congregational  Church  at  West  Haven  in  May 
or  June  of  that  year,  and  sailed  soon  after  to 
England  to  take  orders,  returning  to  Connecti- 
cut two  years  later  with  the  appointment  of  itin- 
erant missionary  in  that  State,  with  a  residence 
at  West  Haven. 

At  this  time  church  and  state  were  scarcely 
yet  divorced,  and  the  new  parishes  were  not  with- 
out complications.  In  1728  the  Reverend  Mr. 
Johnson  announced  that  churchmen  fortunate 
enough  to  reside  near  the  parish  churches  were 
exempt  from  paying  tithes  to  the  Congrega- 
tional ministers,  but  those  scattered  through  the 
country  districts  were  still  under  the  necessity  of 
contributing  to  the  church  they  had  abandoned. 

The  Reverend  Samuel  Johnson  kept  a  watch- 
ful eye  over  the  students  of  Yale,  an  alma  mater 
that  has  supplied  many  able  men  to  the  Epis- 
copal ministry — from  Pierson,  Palmer  and 
Browne  to  our  own  day.  So  deep,  however,  lay 
the  prejudice  against  Episcopacy  in  New  Haven 
that  he  was  unable  to  purchase  a  foot  of  land 
on  which  to  erect  a  chapel.  It  was  only  on  ac- 
count of  the  respect  in  which  he  was  held  and  the 
influence  that  he  gradually  gained  over  many  of 
the  students  that  in  time  several  graduates  and 
a  number  of  young  ministers  were  prevailed 
upon  to  read  under  him.  Among  these  was  young 
Isaac  Browne,  the  brother  of  Daniel  Browne, 


182          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

who  became  an  under-teacher  with  Mr.  Johnson 
at  Setauket  on  Long  Island,  and  who  later,  hav- 
ing been  admitted  to  orders  in  England,  minis- 
tered to  the  people  in  New  Jersey  for  many 
years. 

Although  the  Reverend  Mr.  Johnson  was  able 
to  conduct  service  in  West  Haven  but  once  each 
month,  he  kept  in  close  touch  with  his  people 
there  and  finally  secured  their  ecclesiastical  union 
with  New  Haven.  With  a  residence  at  the  for- 
mer place  the  Reverend  Jonathan  Arnold  grad- 
ually formed  outlying  parishes  in  various 
sections  of  Connecticut,  extending  his  labours  as 
far  as  Waterbury  and  Derby,  laying  in  a  number 
of  these  localities  the  foundations  of  larger  par- 
ishes than  the  little  mother  parish  at  West  Haven 
had  been  able  to  boast  of.  He  was  succeeded  in 
the  home  parish  in  1740  by  the  Reverend  The- 
ophilus  Morris,  an  Englishman,  under  whose 
ministry  the  first  little  parish  church  was  erected 
in  West  Haven.  The  original  subscription  list 
is  still  extant,  very  remarkable  for  the  miscel- 
laneous articles  contributed  by  those  who,  with 
St.  Peter,  might  have  said,  "  Silver  and  gold 
have  I  none,  but  such  as  I  have,  give  I  unto  thee." 
One  finds  recorded  in  it  such  items  as  rum,  mo- 
lasses and  mutton,  from  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  which,  nevertheless,  the  additions  to  the 
church  treasury  resulted.  To  raise  funds  for 
even  this  small  structure  must  have  taxed  the 


OF   AMERICA  183 

resources  of  these  people  exceedingly,  and  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  of  which  it  is  a  monument 
is  almost  inconceivable  at  the  present  day.  The 
original  building  still  stands,  though  a  tower,  a 
chancel  and  greater  breadth  on  the  west  side  of 
the  body  of  the  church  have  been  added. 

In  1742  came  that  great  wave  of  religious  ex- 
citement under  Whitefield  that  the  Puritans 
termed  the  "  Great  Awakening."  The  whole 
country  was  filled  with  evangelists,  and  the  fer- 
vour reached  an  extravagance  almost  beyond 
belief  in  many  quarters.  The  old  conservative 
element  attempted  vainly  to  stem  the  tide,  show- 
ing even  greater  dislike  to  the  "  new  lights " 
than  they  had  shown  to  Episcopacy.  The  Epis- 
copal Church  itself  became  a  refuge  for  many 
who  were  wearied  with  the  agitation  that  per- 
vaded every  stratum  of  society  and  perplexed 
with  such  religious  turmoil  and  controversy.  It 
proved  a  sure  foundation — a  place  where  the 
Gospel  alone  was  preached  and  the  Christian  life 
nourished. 

Its  history  during  the  past  century  has  been 
that  of  many  another  mother  church — her  chil- 
dren growing  to  such  a  ripe  maturity  that  they 
no  longer  needed  the  supporting  arm  of  their 
progenitor  and  became  independent  parishes. 
Old  families  died  out  and  newcomers  worshipped 
according  to  other  forms,  the  little  parish  reached 
evil  days,  and  service  was  held  irregularly,  and 


184          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

for  a  time  even  was  wholly  abandoned,  and  the 
church  building  fell  into  more  or  less  decay. 
To  the  Reverend  Stephen  Jewett  of  Westville 
was  due  the  credit  of  resuming  service  in  the  little 
church  on  Whit  Sunday,  1837.  Through  his 
influence  the  Reverend  A.  B.  Chapin  accepted 
the  rectorship  two  years  later,  serving  the  parish 
most  acceptably  for  ten  years.  It  was  during 
his  incumbency  that  the  church  was  restored  in 
1841  at  a  cost  of  some  nine  hundred  dollars, 
"making  it  one  of  the  neatest  wood  churches 
in  the  diocese." 

The  following  year,  Bishop  Brownell,  in  his 
annual  address,  called  the  attention  of  the  par- 
ishioners to  the  fact  that  although  the  church 
had  stood  as  a  house  of  worship  for  one  hundred 
and  three  years,  it  had  never  been  consecrated. 
This  ceremony  took  place  accordingly  at  last  on 
May  19,  1842,  in  the  presence  not  only  of  the 
communicants  then  living  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
church,  but  also  of  hundreds  of  the  descendants 
of  the  pioneer  members  of  the  parish,  who  came 
from  every  section  of  New  England  to  partici- 
pate in  the  service. 


OF    AMERICA  185 


TRINITY  CHURCH 

FISHKILL,  NEW  YORK 

WHENEVER  and  wherever  Church 
of  England  communicants  entered 
into  the  settlements  of  the  Puri- 
tans, they  were  made  to  feel  most  keenly  that 
they  were  "without  the  fold."  Not  only  did 
the  Puritans  refuse  the  use  of  such  church  build- 
ings as  were  already  erected,  but  in  many  in- 
stances forbade  the  holding  of  any  pulpit  service 
in  which  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  should  be 
used.  This  attitude  of  hostility  was  especially 
manifest  against  the  communicants  of  Trinity 
Church,  organised  in  Fishkill,  New  York,  in 
1756,  under  the  able  leadership  of  the  Right 
Reverend  Samuel  Seabury — America's  first 
Protestant  Episcopal  Bishop.  They  persisted 
in  their  faith  nevertheless,  and  that  same  year 
secured  their  first  rector,  the  Reverend  John 
Beardsley,  whose  simplicity  of  character,  gentle- 
ness, and  tact  won  for  the  little  church  the  good 
will  and  regard  even  of  its  opponents. 

The  present  church  edifice  was  erected  in  Sep- 
tember, 1769.  It  was  a  comely  structure,  with 
a  tall,  tapering  spire,  surmounted  by  a  ball  and 


186          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

weather  vane,  in  the  customary  style  of  the 
churches  of  that  period.  The  earlier  records  of 
the  parish  were  lost  during  the  Revolution,  but 
it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  the  church  was  used 
by  General  Washington  as  a  military  hospital 
at  the  time  the  Continental  Army  disbanded  in 
1783.  Still  further  historic  interest  arises  from 
the  fact  that  on  September  3,  1776,  the  New 
York  Provincial  Convention  removed  to  Trinity 
Church  from  White  Plains,  where  Washington 
then  had  his  headquarters. 

On  December  16,  1777,  the  rector  of  the  par- 
ish, the  Reverend  John  Beardsley,  was  sum- 
moned to  -New  York  City  by  the  Council  of 
Safety,  and  for  nine  years  the  little  flock  was 
without  any  shepherd  save  such  as  might  occa- 
sionally visit  that  section  of  the  State. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  the  Reverend 
Henry  Van  Duke  undertook  the  reorganisation 
of  the  parish,  and  his  energy  and  ability  resulted 
in  the  healing  of  various  breaches  between  op- 
posing political  factions,  as  well  as  the  restora- 
tion of  the  church  building,  and  a  considerable 
increase  in  the  number  of  communicants. 

On  November  21,  1789,  Trinity  Church  wit- 
nessed the  signing  in  a  State  Convention  of  the 
ratification  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  by  the  State  of  New  York,  an  act  ac- 
complished in  the  presence  of  many  interested 
communicants. 


OF   AMERICA  187 

In  1803  subscriptions  were  solicited  through- 
out the  parish  to  raise  money  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  the  church  steeple,  which,  however, 
seems  still  to  have  continued  a  source  of  anxiety 
on  account  of  its  weakness,  and  in  1817  was  re- 
moved. The  base  remained,  and  until  1860 
supported  a  short  tower  surmounted  by  an  or- 
namental railing.  In  1860  this  tower  was  razed 
and  the  whole  building  thoroughly  repaired.  A 
few  years  later  the  parish  remodelled  the  interior 
of  the  church,  removing  the  high  pulpit,  with  its 
antiquated  sounding-board,  which  had  stood 
near  the  centre  of  the  building,  and  replacing 
the  high-backed  pews  with  more  comfortable 
seats. 

In  the  churchyard  of  Trinity  lie  many  of  the 
most  prominent  of  the  earlier  colonists  in  or 
near  Fishkill,  together  with  such  soldiers  as  died 
in  the  church  during  its  occupancy  as  a  Conti- 
nental hospital.  No  stones  marked  these  burials, 
and  until  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  graves  dug 
to  receive  the  remains  of  communicants  of  the 
parish  upturned  scraps  of  blankets,  with  por- 
tions of  skeletons,  revealing  the  last  resting 
places  of  some  forgotten  patriots.  Among  the 
modern  graves  there  is  also  that  of  Gulian  C. 
Ver  Planck,  who  has  been  notably  identified  with 
the  literature  of  our  country  and  to  whose  credit 
an  edition  of  Shakespeare  remains. 

Trinity  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Fish- 


188          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

kill  bears  the  distinction  of  being  the  first  edifice 
erected  by  the  Church  of  England  in  Dutch- 
ess  County,  New  York,  and  is  still  one  of  the 
prosperous  parishes  in  that  section  of  the 
State. 


OF   AMERICA  189 


SAN  JOSE   DE   GUADALUPE 

SAN  JOSE,  CALIFORNIA 

BEFORE  the  building  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Mission  of  San  Jose  the  Span- 
ish Missions  in  California  might  have 
been  characterised  as  individual,  since  each  was 
an  isolated  unit  of  civilisation.  With  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Mission  at  San  Jose,  however, 
close  to  those  of  Santa  Clara  and  Soledad,  a  new 
era  began.  In  this  effort  the  Spanish  padres 
joined  hands  with  the  military  authorities  to  pro- 
duce peace  in  the  territory  lying  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  so  that  the  Spanish  army  there 
might  be  reduced.  The  Spanish  Viceroy  agreed 
to  contribute  a  thousand  dollars  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Mission,  provided  no  increase  of 
troops  should  be  asked  for  its  defence. 

On  June  12,  1787,  the  actual  work  of  building 
the  church  was  begun;  timber  was  cut  and  water 
provided,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  simply  con- 
structed little  buildings  were  ready  for  occu- 
pancy. The  church  edifice  was  of  logs,  with  a 
grass  roof. 

The  Indians  in  the  vicinity  of  San  Jose  Val- 
ley did  not  seem  at  all  pleased  with  this  broaden- 


190          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

ing  out  of  the  cordon  of  Missions,  but  no  open 
act  of  hostility  occurred  until  January,  1805, 
when  Padre  Cueva,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
San  Jose  Mission,  set  out  to  visit  a  sick  convert 
some  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  distant.  His  escort 
consisted  of  three  Spanish  guards  and  a  few 
neophytes.  The  little  party  rode  into  an  am- 
buscade, and  the  padre  and  one  of  his  guard 
were  wounded,  while  the  rest  of  the  party  were 
killed  and  their  horses  captured.  The  one  re- 
maining member  of  the  guard  managed  to  make 
his  way  back  to  the  Mission  and  word  was  at  once 
sent  to  the  Spanish  garrison  at  San  Francisco. 
A  force  was  quickly  sent  out,  the  fleeing  hostiles 
were  overtaken,  eleven  of  them  killed,  and  the 
remaining  thirty  made  captives.  A  tour  of  in- 
vestigation that  followed  during  the  month  of 
February  disclosed  only  penitent  and  submissive 
Indians. 

The  situation  of  the  Mission  was  most  admir- 
ably chosen,  and  so  greatly  did  it  prosper  that 
within  eight  years  after  its  establishment  new 
and  substantial  buildings  had  been  erected  from 
brick  made  and  baked  in  the  immediate  vicinity. 
On  April  23,  1809,  the  new  Mission  Church  was 
consecrated  and  the  following  July  the  little 
cemetery  was  blessed. 

Hostile  Indians  again  attacked  the  Mission  in 
1817,  carrying  off  a  number  of  cattle.  An 
armed  force  once  more  set  out  in  pursuit,  follow- 


St.  Joseph's,    San   Jose,  California 


OF   AMERICA  191 

ing  a  trail  which  led  to  a  marshy  island  in  the 
San  Joaquin  River,  where  a  large  body  of  In- 
dians was  concealed.  So  desperate  a  fight 
ensued  that  for  some  little  time  the  Spanish 
leader,  Soto,  was  doubtful  of  the  result.  Even- 
tually, however,  the  Indian  ranks  broke  and  they 
fled  for  safety,  leaving  many  wounded  and  dead, 
but  no  captives. 

By  1824  the  Mission  of  San  Jose  had  about 
eighteen  hundred  communicants,  and  financially 
was  fourth  among  the  Spanish  Missions  on  the 
Western  frontier.  On  account  of  its  proximity 
to  the  route  usually  followed  by  trappers  and 
fugitives  from  justice,  it  had  a  more  exciting 
history  than  many  others.  In  1826  there  issued 
from  its  walls  an  expedition  against  the  Co- 
summes  in  which  forty  Indians  were  killed,  their 
rancheria  destroyed  and  a  number  of  captives 
taken.  In  1829  occurred  the  famous  campaign 
against  Estanislas,  who  had  previously  so  won 
the  confidence  of  the  Spanish  missionaries  as 
to  be  appointed  alcalde.  Backsliding,  he  had 
left  the  Mission  in  1827,  accompanied  by  a  large 
following,  and  for  two  years  had  terrorised  the 
neighbourhood.  When  he  learned  of  the  ad- 
vance against  him  of  the  people  of  San  Jose 
Mission,  and  the  Spanish  soldiery,  he  retired  to 
the  cover  of  a  dense  forest,  and  the  Spanish 
leader  Vallejo,  realising  that  he  could  make  no 
headway  by  following  the  usual  military  tactics 


192          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

against  such  an  enemy,  sent  out  squads  of  men, 
as  soon  as  night  had  fallen,  to  fire  the  woods  at 
different  points.  Investigation  next  day  proved 
the  wisdom  of  this  course,  for  the  Indians  had 
fled  from  the  widespread  conflagration.  As 
soon  as  the  hot  embers  permitted,  the  Spaniards 
followed  the  trail  of  the  Indians,  who,  upon  be- 
ing overtaken,  still  maintained  a  dogged  hostil- 
ity, but  under  the  persuasion  of  the  cannon  that 
the  Spanish  trained  upon  Estanislas  they  soon 
surrendered.  That  the  Spanish  made  an  ex- 
ample of  the  ringleaders  in  order  to  quench  any 
lurking  desire  to  follow  the  example  of  this 
renegade,  Spanish  writers  have  repeatedly  de- 
nied, but  when  one  considers  the  character  of  the 
Spanish  soldiery  he  will  accept  such  statements 
with  many  a  grain  of  allowance. 

In  1826  Jedediah  Smith,  of  Mormon  fame, 
came  from  the  Great  Salt  on  an  exploring  ex- 
pedition, but  meeting  with  a  cold  reception  at 
the  hands  of  the  San  Jose  padre,  he  returned  to 
Salt  Lake  City,  being  the  first  white  man  whose 
crossing  of  the  Sierras  is  recorded. 

With  the  separation  of  the  church  from  the 
state  in  1737,  or  as  the  phrase  was  then,  the 
"  secularisation  of  the  Missions,"  an  inventory  of 
the  possessions  of  the  Mission  of  San  Jose  de 
Guadalupe  ascribed  to  it  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  property.  On 
March  29,  1843,  the  Spanish  padres  were  once 


OF    AMERICA  193 

more  placed  in  possession  of  the  Mission,  where 
they  still  maintain  services  regularly.  In  1884 
a  new  and  modern  structure  was  built  for  a  semi- 
nary for  novices  studying  for  the  priesthood. 
Later  this  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Dominican 
Sisterhood  to  be  used  as  an  orphan  asylum,  and 
as  such  it  is  still  conducted. 

Among  the  relics  in  the  possession  of  the  Mis- 
sion are  two  of  the  bells  that  hung  in  the  first  old 
Mission  Church;  these  date  back  to  1815  and 
1826;  the  timbers  upon  which  they  are  swung 
are  tied  together  with  rawhide.  The  old  baptis- 
mal font  too  is  still  used;  this  is  of  hammered 
copper,  about  three  feet  in  diameter  and  is 
surmounted  by  an  iron  cross  some  eight  inches  in 
height.  The  font  stands  upon  a  simple  wooden 
upright. 

From  similarity  of  name  many  gather  the  im- 
pression that  the  Mission  is  situated  in  the  city 
of  San  Jose;  such,  however,  is  not  the  case,  for 
the  Mission  buildings  and  lands  lie  some  little 
distance  from  the  town,  over  the  foothills  toward 
San  Francisco  Bay. 


194          HISTORIC   CHURCHES 


ST.  PETER'S  CHURCH 

ALBANY,   NEW    YOKK 

\ 

THE  first  American  service  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  of  England  was  held  in 
Albany,  New  York,  in  1704,  though 
not  in  any  regularly  built  or  dedicated  edifice. 
Like  many  another  body  of  Colonial  worshippers, 
for  a  number  of  years  the  communicants  could 
not  aff ord  a  church  of  their  own,  or  even  a  rector. 
From  1712  to  1715  the  Albany  Episcopalians 
worshipped  in  a  little  Lutheran  church  that  was 
kind  enough  to  open  its  doors  to  them.  It  was 
General  Hunter,  who  had  been  sent  over  by 
Queen  Anne  to  succeed  Lord  Lovelace  as  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  who  at  last  encouraged 
them  to  erect  a  church  of  their  own,  himself  con- 
tributing a  site  as  well  as  the  stone  for  the  build- 
ing. Under  his  influence  no  doubt  many  of  the 
officers  of  the  British  garrison  stationed  at  Al- 
bany added  their  quota  to  the  expense. 

In  November,  1715,  this  first  English  Church 
in  Albany  was  dedicated.  The  building  was  of 
stone  measuring  fifty  by  forty-two  feet.  A 
short  tower  was  added  in  1750,  and  a  bell  which 
still  bears  the  date  of  1750  was  set  up  in  it.  The 


St.  Peter's,  Albany,  New  York 


OF   AMERICA  195 

main  entrance  was  toward  the  south,  another 
door  which  led  out  of  the  north  side  of  the 
building  being  seldom  used.  Over  the  altar,  on 
the  east  side,  was  a  triple  window,  while  on  both 
the  north  and  the  south  sides  were  two  windows. 
The  pulpit  and  reading  desk  stood  between  the 
two  north  windows,  while  the  gallery  was  on  the 
west  side  of  the  building.  The  interior  walls  of 
the  church  were  adorned  with  large  paintings  of 
Scriptural  scenes,  and  in  one  place  with  the  coat 
of  arms  of  Great  Britain.  The  communion  serv- 
ice was  a  gift  of  Queen  Anne  to  "the  little 
Chapel  of  the  Onondagas,"  and  a  handsome 
brass  clock  was  also  sent  over  from  the  old  land 
for  use  in  the  little  church. 

During  the  years  that  elapsed  between  1763-6, 
the  task  of  translating  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  into  the  Mohawk  language  was  success- 
fully accomplished,  although  not  more  than 
from  four  to  five  hundred  copies  were  printed 
and  bound.  In  1758  Lord  Howe  was  killed  in 
the  battle  of  Ticonderoga,  and  so  highly  was  he 
esteemed  in  Albany  that  he  was  buried  under  the 
chancel  of  St.  Peter's,  where  his  grave  is  marked 
to  this  day. 

In  1790  stoves  were  introduced  for  heating 
the  church,  regarded  though  they  were  as  a  great 
extravagance  by  many  in  the  little  community  of 
Albany. 

The  old  church  at  last  became  too  small  to 


196          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

accommodate  the  growing  membership  and  was 
therefore  demolished.  A  new  and  more  com- 
modious building  was  dedicated  on  April  26, 
1802.  To  this  edifice  were  transferred  the  bell 
and  the  brass  clock,  both  of  which  were  still  in 
excellent  condition.  Only  twenty  years  later  it 
was  found  necessary  to  substitute  a  new  and 
more  modern  timepiece,  and  the  brass  clock  was 
preserved  as  a  memento  until  it  was  destroyed 
in  the  great  fire  that  swept  Albany  in  1848. 

The  third  church  edifice  built  by  the  parishion- 
ers of  St.  Peter's  was  dedicated  in  1859,  and  is 
still  occupied  regularly  for  worship.  So  many 
missionaries  have  gone  out  from  this  parish, 
founding  other  churches  in  various  sections  of 
New  York,  that  St.  Peter's  may  well  be  regarded 
as  a  mother  church  of  Episcopalians  throughout 
the  State. 


OF   AMERICA  197 


FIRST  DUTCH  REFORMED  CHURCH 

FISHKILL,  NEW  YORK 

FROM  the  date  of  the  organisation  of  the 
parish  of  the  First  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  of  Fishkill,  New  York,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  regular 
services  were  held  from  house  to  house  among 
the  members,  who,  conjointly  with  two  other 
rural  settlements — Hopewell  and  New  Hacken- 
sack — were  served  by  a  minister  of  their 
own  faith.  The  first  structure  erected  by  the 
congregation,  a  rude  and  simple  affair  archi- 
tecturally, gladdened  the  hearts  of  the  little  flock 
as  one  step  further  in  the  material  kingdom  of 
Christ.  The  plain  walls  of  logs  and  the  home- 
made but  substantial  furnishings  found  favour 
in  their  sight. 

This  church  served  the  needs  of  the  congrega- 
tion until  1731,  when  they  built  a  stone  church 
having  unusually  liberal  dimensions  for  that  day 
and  place.  There  was  also  a  tower  at  the  front, 
with  a  belfry  and  steeple.  A  gallery  was  built 
around  three  sides  and  the  pews  were  simple  and 
conveniently  arranged. 

The  little  community  prospered,  and  as  it  in- 


198          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

creased  in  numbers  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
received  new  members  into  its  communion.  The 
records  of  the  church,  which  were  for  a  long  time 
accurately  kept,  were  with  the  death  of  its  sec- 
retary some  seventy-five  years  ago  unfortunately 
lost,  and  found  again  only  after  twenty  years 
stored  away  carefully  in  the  secretary's  garret. 
They  had  been  kept  in  Dutch,  but  translations 
have  been  made  into  English  and  they  are  re- 
garded as  among  the  most  exact  and  complete  of 
any  church  records  in  New  York  State. 

With  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution, 
many  recruits  were  obtained  from  among  the 
communicants  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church, 
for  its  members  were  as  a  unit  in  their  patriot- 
ism. They  promptly  offered  the  use  of  the 
church  building  for  representatives  of  the  thir- 
teen Colonies  to  meet  in  to  consider  ways  and 
means  for  furthering  the  cause  against  Great 
Britain;  and  the  Provincial  Convention  was  held 
there  in  1776.  As  hostilities  extended  through- 
out Eastern  New  York,  Western  Connecticut 
and  Massachusetts,  the  church  also  served  the 
Continental  army  as  a  military  prison.  It  was 
this  prison  in  which  Enoch  Crosby — the  original 
from  whom  Fenimore  Cooper  drew  his  character 
of  Harvey  Birch — was  confined,  and  from  which 
he  made  his  escape  by  climbing  through  the  up- 
per portion  of  a  window  and  springing  from  the 
window  sill  into  the  branches  of  a  tree  that  grew 


OF   AMERICA  199 

close  by;  for  the  church  stands  in  a  locality  gen- 
erally made  famous  by  the  great  American 
novelist. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  the  church  building 
was  restored  to  its  original  condition,  and  en- 
larged to  increase  its  capacity.  No  less  than 
three  times  during  the  past  century — 1804,  1820, 
and  1882 — material  alterations  have  been  made 
in  the  interior  finishing  and  furnishings.  The 
little  church  is  still  regularly  occupied  for  serv- 
ice, and  its  financial  as  well  as  its  spiritual  condi- 
tion have  ever  given  cause  for  rejoicing  among 
its  communicants. 


200          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


CHRIST  CHURCH 

PHILADELPHIA,,  PENNSYLVANIA 

IN  North  Second  Street,  Philadelphia,  near 
Market    Street,    is    Christ    Church,    first 
among   the    churches    of    our    country    in 
its  associations  with  the  struggle  of  the  Colonies 
for   independence.     The  present  building  was 
erected  in  1727-37  in  the  style  of  St.  Martin's-in- 
the-Fields,  London,  and  its  organisation  dates 
almost  from  the  founding  of  the  colony. 

The  old  church  is  solidly  built,  of  bricks  that 
were  brought  from  England.  In  1754  a  chime 
of  bells  was  purchased  in  the  mother  country, 
the  money  to  pay  for  them  having  been  raised 
by  a  lottery  conducted  by  Benjamin  Franklin. 
There  were  eight  bells  in  all  brought  to  Phila- 
delphia on  the  good  ship  Myrtttla,  the  captain 
of  which  declined  any  compensation  for  the 
service.  For  many  years  after  they  had  been 
hung  in  the  belfry,  they  were  rung  at  noon  daily 
to  please  the  citizens  of  Philadelphia,  as  well  in 
the  evening  before  each  market  day  for  the  grati- 
fication of  the  farmers  who  had  brought  their 
produce  to  town.  The  interest  shown  by  all 
citizens  of  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  in  those 


Copyright,    1901,    by   Detroit   Photographic    Company 

Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania 


OF   AMERICA  201 

bells,  irrespective  of  sect,  was  great  and  curious, 
and  indeed  they  were  only  the  second  set  of 
chimes  to  be  imported  into  the  Colonies. 

In  addition  to  the  regular  ringings,  the  bells 
were  rung  on  every  occasion,  important  or  tri- 
fling. When  news  of  disaster  was  received 
their  tones  were  muffled  and  thus  carried  the  tid- 
ings to  all  the  townspeople.  On  July  4,  1776, 
on  the  other  hand,  they  rang  out  loudly  and 
spread  the  message  far  and  near  that  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  had  been  signed  in  In- 
dependence Hall  not  far  away. 

In  token  of  the  Christ  Church  vestry's  full 
approval  of  the  Declaration  the  bust  of  King 
George  III.  was  removed  from  the  prominent 
niche  it  had  hitherto  occupied,  an  act  which  was 
followed  a  few  months  later  by  the  destruction 
of  the  crown  in  the  spire  of  the  church  by  light- 
ning. Tory  and  Loyalist  no  doubt  looked  upon 
this  circumstance  as  an  omen. 

On  July  20,  1775,  Congress  attended  service 
in  Christ  Church  in  a  body.  Under  its  roof 
too  was  perfected  the  organisation  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  America,  a  convention  having 
been  called  for  the  purpose  in  1785.  Treasured 
among  the  archives  of  the  parish  is  an  original 
copy  of  the  Prayer  Book  of  Edward  VI.,  with 
alterations  made  in  the  convention  in  accordance 
with  the  proposed  act  of  disruption  from  the 
Church  of  England. 


202          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

General  Washington  attended  service  at 
Christ  Church  from  1790  to  1797  and  the  pew 
he  occupied  is  preserved  in  the  National  Museum 
in  Washington;  another  pew  is  also  preserved 
— that  occupied  by  Betsy  Ross,  who  made  the 
first  American  flag. 

The  old  church  is  rich  in  treasures,  including 
ancient  volumes,  furniture,  tablets  and  silver 
vessels,  many  of  them  possessing  extreme  his- 
toric interest. 


OF    AMERICA  203 


THE  OLD  DUTCH  CHURCH 

TARRYTOWN,   NEW    YORK 

CLOSELY  linked  with  the  Revolutionary 
history  of  Tarrytown  is  the  old  Dutch 
Church  built  there  near  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  New  Netherlands 
a  youth  named  Vredyk  Flypse,  a  Bohemian  by 
birth,  came  over  from  Holland  to  New  Amster- 
dam. His  sole  capital  consisted  in  his  trade  of 
carpentry,  and  that  he  soon  abandoned  for  the 
more  lucrative  pursuit  of  dealing  in  furs.  Not 
long  afterward  his  marriage  with  the  widow  of 
one  of  the  most  successful  fur  traders  in  New 
Netherlands  made  him,  for  those  days,  a  man  of 
considerable  wealth.  In  1680  Meinheer  Flypse 
obtained  a  grant  of  certain  tracts  of  land  situ- 
ated in  the  county  of  Westchester  and  extending 
from  Spuyten  Duyvil  along  the  Hudson  River 
as  far  north  as  the  Kill  of  Kitch  Awong.  Within 
three  years  after  obtaining  this  grant,  Vredyk 
Flypse  had  erected  for  himself  a  manor  house, 
a  mill  and  a  little  church  on  the  Pocantico  that 
is  still  in  existence  and  most  highly  cherished 
by  the  people  of  Tarrytown,  as  well  as  by  all  resi- 


204          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

dents  of  New  York  State  who  are  aware  of  its 
interest.  The  bricks  used  in  the  construction  of 
the  chimney  of  the  church,  were  brought  from 
Holland  in  vessels  owned  and  operated  by  Mein- 
heer  Flypse,  as  was  also  the  church  bell.  With 
true  commercial  instinct,  the  old  burgher  had  es- 
tablished a  substantial  trade  between  New  Am- 
sterdam and  England  and  Holland,  shipping 
furs  to  Europe  and  importing  various  commodi- 
ties that  found  ready  sale  in  New  Netherlands, 
and  the  bricks  and  bell  came  over  in  his  ships. 

The  construction  of  the  Pocantico  Church,  as 
well  as  that  of  the  manor  house,  was  ponderous 
enough  to  suggest  that  they  were  meant  to  en- 
dure as  monuments  of  their  builder  for  all  time. 
The  church  walls  were  thirty  inches  thick,  and 
the  windows  in  them  were  elevated  seven  feet 
above  the  ground  and  had  iron  bars  to  serve  the 
better  for  protection  against  hostile  Indians. 
Within  the  church  a  huge  pulpit,  with  a  broad 
sounding-board,  projected  from  the  eastern  wall. 
Originally,  the  seats  for  the  congregation  were 
without  backs,  for  the  purpose  of  forbidding 
lounging  or  slumber  during  the  sermon,  in  naive 
contrast  with  the  comfortable  and  imposing 
pews  that,  ranged  on  either  side  of  the  pulpit, 
provided  agreeable  seats  for  the  occupants  of  the 
manor  house  and  their  notable  visitors.  The 
farmers  who  resided  near  by  occupied  the  body 
of  the  church,  while  a  gallery  served  for  slaves 


OF   AMERICA  205 

and  for  "  Redemptioners,"  poor  settlers  who  had 
sold  their  services  for  a  time  to  pay  the  cost  of 
their  passage  from  the  Old  World.  Within  the 
church  still  stands  the  ancient  bier,  around  which 
many  tears  have  no  doubt  been  shed  since  the 
dedication  of  the  edifice  in  1697  by  the  Reverend 
Guiliam  Berthoff,  who  came  from  Holland 
specially  to  serve  the  little  community. 

During  the  stormy  days  of  the  Revolution  the 
church  was  closed,  and  so  strong  did  the  spirit  of 
liberty  and  equality  rage  in  the  parish  that  the 
trappings  that  had  distinguished  the  pew  of  the 
lord  of  the  manor  were  torn  down  and  burned. 
Thereafter,  this  pew  and  its  fellows  were  ap- 
propriated by  the  elders  and  deacons  of  the 
church,  an  act  indicative  of  the  triumph  of  demo- 
cratic ideas  in  church  and  state. 

No  rural  church  in  our  country  has  gained  so 
wide  a  fame  as  this  little  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  in  Sleepy  Hollow.  In  its  modest  grave- 
yard lie  the  remains  of  that  gentle  humourist, 
Washington  Irving,  whose  intense  love  for  this 
locality  and  the  little  church  itself  has  imbued 
many  readers  with  affection  and  reverence  for  it. 
The  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  dedication 
of  the  church  brought  together  from  all  sections 
of  the  country  men  of  every  denomination,  who 
hastened  to  join  hands  in  its  memory,  as  well  as 
to  render  homage  to  the  great  writer  whose  love 
for  the  old  edifice  was  so  deep  and  lasting. 


206          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   PAUL'S    CHURCH 

NORFOLK,    VIRGINIA 

AIONG  the  old  churches  of  the  South, 
both  architecturally  and  in  point  of  his- 
tory, few  are  more  interesting  than  St. 
Paul's  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  of  Nor- 
folk, Virginia. 

Raised  bricks  set  in  its  wall  testify  to  1739  as 
the  date  of  the  church's  erection,  very  soon  after 
the  establishment  of  the  first  settlement  there, 
and  the  granting  of  a  charter  by  act  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Assembly.  In  plan  the  building  is  cruci- 
form, and  the  doors  are  arched  in  accordance 
with  the  prevailing  custom  of  those  times,  while 
the  beauty  of  the  windows  still  arouses  admira- 
tion. 

During  the  Revolution  the  old  church,  as  well 
as  its  church  property,  suffered  much.  Its  rec- 
tor at  that  date  was  the  Reverend  Thomas  Davis, 
whose  sympathies  were  wholly  with  the  Ameri- 
can colonists,  and  who,  in  1766,  was  chairman  of 
a  well-attended  town  meeting  to  protest  against 
the  notorious  Stamp  Act.  This  action  was  not 
forgotten  by  the  British  ten  years  later  when 
their  army  bombarded  Norfolk,  under  Lord 


OF   AMERICA  207 

Dunmore,  and  entirely  destroyed  the  city. 
Nothing  remained  of  the  little  church  of  St. 
Paul's  except  the  walls,  in  one  of  which,  the 
south  wall,  a  cannon  ball  still  bears  witness  of 
the  British  onslaught. 

After  the  close  of  the  Revolution  St.  Paul's 
was  rebuilt,  in  the  original  plan,  using  the  orig- 
inal walls.  The  same  contour  was  followed  in  the 
doorways,  and  the  quaint  old  windows  also  were 
replaced.  Its  career  has  been  signally  successful, 
and  from  time  to  time  St.  Paul's  has  planted 
offshoots  here  and  there,  until  the  churches  that 
have  grown  up  under  her  protection  number  at 
least  ten. 

St.  Paul's  lay  in  the  track  of  the  contending 
armies  during  the  great  Civil  War;  each  army, 
North  or  South,  in  turn  occupied  it,  and  the 
close  of  the  war  found  it  devastated,  its  commu- 
nicants dead  or  scattered,  and  its  treasury  de- 
pleted. It  was  only  as  the  years  rolled  on  that 
the  congregation  gradually  gathered  up  its  cour- 
age once  more  and  repaired  the  church  building. 
Although  certain  improvements  were  added,  the 
original  lines  were  again  faithfully  preserved, 
as  they  had  been  after  the  Revolution,  and  to-day 
the  church  bids  fair  to  stand  for  another  two 
hundred  years  of  activity  and  energy. 

St.  Paul's  churchyard  is  regarded  as  the  most 
beautiful  cemetery  in  all  Virginia.  Among  those 
who  lie  there  are  many  who  fought  both  for  and 


208          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

against  the  United  States  as  a  nation,  not  only 
during  the  Revolution,  but  the  Civil  War  as  well. 
Here  also  are  found  the  graves  of  the  original 
Huguenots  who  first  settled  in  Virginia,  together 
with  those  of  many  men  whose  forefathers  bore 
an  honourable  part  in  the  history  of  Scotland 
and  Ireland. 


OF    AMERICA  209 


FIRST   DUTCH   REFORMED 
CHURCH 

FLATBUSH,    LONG    ISLAND 

IMMEDIATELY  following  the  settlement 
of  Manhattan  Island  various  pioneers,  cast- 
ing a  look  ahead  and  attracted  by  the 
promised  profits  of  farming  on  Long  Island, 
pre-empted  land  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  East 
River,  and  began  to  live  there.  These  settlers, 
regarding  themselves  as  part  and  parcel  of  the 
greater  settlement,  may,  indeed,  be  looked  upon 
as  the  progenitors  of  '  Greater  New  York." 
For  almost  twenty  years  they  travelled  over  to 
Manhattan  to  worship  in  the  little  church  build- 
ing within  the  fort,  served  by  theological  stu- 
dents sent  out  by  the  West  India  Company, 
who  recognised  the  American  colony  as  humble 
members  of  the  Synod  of  Holland  and  the 
Classis  of  Amsterdam.  The  name  given  these 
lay  readers  was  "  Comforters  of  the  Sick,"  and 
occasionally  when  service  was  conducted  in  the 
house  or  barn  of  some  invalid  communicant,  the 
settlers  for  miles  inland  attended  en  masse. 

In  1628  the  first  regularly  ordained  minister 
of  the  Gospel,  Domine  Michaelius,  was  sent 
out  to  the  American  Colony  by  the  North  Synod 


210          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

of  Holland.  Upon  his  arrival  he  organised  the 
first  body  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in 
America,  embodying  some  fifty  communicants. 
Three  years  later  he  was  followed  by  Domine 
Everardus  Rogardus.  The  year  of  his  advent 
into  the  American  Church  organisation,  1633, 
was  marked  by  the  erection  of  the  first  regular 
church  building  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church 
in  America. 

As  the  Long  Island  settlers  prospered,  they 
decided  that  they,  too,  were  able  to  erect  a  church 
of  their  own.  They  had  been  dependent  upon 
the  rudest  sort  of  methods  for  crossing  the  East 
River,  their  ferry  consisting  merely  of  a  small 
flat-boat  rowed  by  some  nearby  farmer,  who  was 
summoned  by  a  horn  which  hung  conveniently  on 
a  neighbouring  tree  for  the  purpose.  The  length 
of  the  passage  depended  upon  the  weather  and 
tide,  and  the  ancient  Long  Islanders  decided  it 
was  time  they  should  make  their  church-going 
less  hazardous. 

In  1654  they  accordingly  completed  the  erec- 
tion of  their  first  house  of  worship.  They 
selected  Flatbush  as  the  most  central  and  conven- 
ient site  for  the  residents  of  "  Rreukelen,  Med- 
wont  and  Amersf ort "  —  as  Rrooklyn,  Flatbush 
and  Flatlands  were  then  called.  The  cost  of  the 
building  was  eighteen  hundred  dollars,  to  which 
fund  Governor  Peter  Stuyvesant,  the  last  Dutch 
"Director-General"  of  the  New  Netherlands, 


OF  AMERICA  211 

contributed  liberally.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a 
cross,  sixty-five  feet  long  by  twenty-eight  feet 
wide,  and  from  twelve  to  fourteen  feet  from 
floor  to  ceiling.  In  architectural  style  and  in 
interior  finish  the  church  was  plain  and  simple, 
being  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  homely 
life  led  by  these  Dutch  burghers. 

The  communicants  of  the  Dutch  Church  were 
most  emphatic  in  demanding  broad  and  thorough 
theological  training  in  the  ministers  sent  out  to 
serve  them.  Of  these  the  Reverend  Johannus 
Theodorus  Polhemus  was  the  first  regularly  or- 
dained minister  at  Flatbush.  Under  his  preach- 
ing the  church  prospered,  and  in  1681  had 
attained  so  great  a  prominence  in  the  New  Neth- 
erlands Classis  that  the  consistory  of  the  church 
was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  still  another 
deacon,  selected  from  the  communicants  who 
resided  at  New  Lots.  For  many  years  none  of 
the  Dutch  Reformed  churches  on  Long  Island, 
with  the  exception  of  the  church  at  Flatbush, 
had  more  than  two  elders  and  two  deacons. 

The  number  of  worshippers  increased  duly,  and 
in  1698  arrangements  were  made  to  erect  a  new 
church  edifice.  The  communicants  wished,  more- 
over, to  possess  a  building  in  which  they  could 
take  some  pride.  [To  one  of  the  leading  elders  is 
attributed  the  remark  that  they  were  ashamed  to 
have  the  English  see  them  attending  service  in  a 
mean  church  building,  since  the  first  thing  that 


212          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

New  Englanders  did,  after  erecting  places  of 
shelter  for  their  families,  was  to  build  a  substan- 
tial church.  Accordingly  the  Dutch  at  Flatbush 
at  once  started  a  subscription  for  a  building  f und, 
and  before  a  great  while  accumulated  something 
over  six  thousand  dollars — a  large  sum  for  those 
times.  No  record  exists  of  contributions  being 
asked  from  any  outside  the  communicants  of  the 
church,  nor  did  any  debt  remain  to  be  liquidated 
by  later  members,  two  facts  which  testify  to  the 
prosperous  condition  of  the  little  Dutch  colony. 
The  location  selected  for  the  new  church  was 
the  site  of  the  old  building,  and  the  stones  of  the 
old  church  were  again  employed  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  new  structure.  The  entire  edifice 
was  of  stone,  with  its  front  facing  the  east,  in 
which  a  large,  arched,  double  door  opened.  The 
roof  was  steep,  rising  from  each  of  the  four 
walls,  and  at  its  apex  a  small  steeple  was  built,  in 
which  was  hung  a  bell  brought  from  Holland. 
The  building  was  wider  in  its  front  than  its 
depth,  being  sixty-five  feet  from  north  to  south, 
while  it  measured  only  fifty  feet  from  east  to 
west.  The  roof  rested  partly  upon  the  walls  and 
partly  upon  two  large  oaken  columns  which 
stood  within  the  church  equi-distant  from  each 
other  and  from  the  nearest  wall.  These  two 
columns  supported  a  plate  in  the  centre  of  the 
lofty,  arched,  plank  ceiling,  while  the  north  and 
south  ends  of  the  roof  rested  upon  the  walls. 


OF   AMERICA  213 

The  consequence  was  that  these  end  walls  were 
higher  than  the  east  and  west  walls.  To  make 
the  roof  more  secure,  the  two  interior  oak  sup- 
ports were  braced  together  heavily.  This  unusual 
construction  was  most  defective,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed, for  the  pressure  was  so  great  upon  the 
north  and  south  walls  that  in  time  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  north  wall  was  forced  more  than  a 
foot  out  of  plumb. 

The  pulpit  stood  in  the  centre  of  the  west  side 
of  the  building,  and  at  its  right  were  the  seats 
for  the  elders  of  the  church,  and  at  its  left,  those 
for  the  deacons.  The  male  portion  of  the  congre- 
gation was  provided  with  seats  along  the  walls 
on  three  sides  of  the  church,  while  the  centre  was 
devoted  to  the  use  of  the  women.  The  women 
and  little  girls  occupied  chairs,  the  men  and  boys 
unpretentious  benches,  divided  into  twenty  com- 
partments with  low  doors.  The  chairs  were 
ranged  in  seven  rows  or  blocks,  and  each  was 
marked  upon  the  back  with  the  name  of  the 
owner.  The  windows  were  formed  of  small 
panes  of  glass,  those  on  each  side  of  the  pulpit 
being  painted,  or  ornamented  with  lead  mullions. 

In  1775  the  seating  arrangements  of  the 
church  were  changed  and  pews  to  the  number 
of  sixty-four  substituted  for  the  chairs  and 
benches.  Each  pew  provided  for  the  seating  of 
at  least  six  people,  and  families  were  again  re- 
united in  the  church  sittings.  A  short  gallery 


214          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

was  also  built  on  each  side  of  the  entrance  door, 
one  of  them  reserved  for  the  use  of  communi- 
cants who  were  too  poor  to  pay  the  rental  of  a 
pew,  the  other  for  coloured  members.  Con- 
spicuous in  their  location  and  finish  were  two 
pews  near  the  pulpit  in  the  front  of  the  body 
of  the  church.  In  one  of  these  sat  the  minister's 
family,  and  in  the  other  any  notable  visitors  that 
might  come  for  worship.  In  a  prominent  posi- 
tion near  the  pulpit  hung  a  board  upon  which 
was  regularly  noted  the  Psalms  to  be  sung  dur- 
ing service  each  Sunday. 

The  old  Psalm  books  carried  to  church  and 
used  during  the  service  deserve  mention.  Each 
was  curiously  bound  in  silver  at  the  corners  and 
was  fastened  by  ornamental  clasps.  Attached  to 
the  Psalm  book  by  a  silver  ring  were  long  cords 
or  silver  chains  with  which  to  hang  it  at  the  back 
of  the  chair  during  the  sermon.  The  Psalms  of 
David  and  the  New  Testament  were  bound  to- 
gether in  the  Dutch  "Psalm  books,"  some  of 
which  have  been  preserved  to  this  day  by  de- 
scendants of  the  original  church  members. 

Though  no  provision  whatever  was  made  for 
heating  the  church,  ample  means  was  supplied 
for  arousing  the  settlement  in  the  event  of  In- 
dian attacks.  The  bell  rope  which  descended 
from  the  belfry  down  through  the  middle  aisle 
of  the  church,  was  rung  not  only  to  call  the  con- 
gregation together  for  worship,  but  also  to  warn 


OF   AMERICA  215 

the  settlers  when  an  attack  threatened.  Dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  when  the  British  landed 
on  Long  Island  in  August,  1776,  the  bell  in  the 
Flatbush  Dutch  Reformed  Church  sounded  the 
first  alarm. 

After  the  Battle  of  Long  Island  the  British 
carried  their  wounded  into  the  Flatbush  Church, 
which  became  temporarily  a  hospital.  When 
other  quarters  for  the  sick  and  wounded  were 
provided  later  the  church  served  the  British 
artillery  as  a  stable  for  their  horses.  ,The  whole 
interior  was  demolished,  and  the  pews  built  only 
the  year  previous  were  burnt  as  fuel  or  to  cook 
the  soldiers'  rations.  At  the  end  of  the  war, 
when  the  British  troops  had  quitted  Long  Island, 
the  surviving  communicants  of  the  Flatbush  Re- 
formed Dutch  Church  got  together  again  and 
undertook  the  renovation  of  the  building.  They 
seem  to  have  felt,  however,  that  their  house  of 
worship  had  been  contaminated  by  the  uses  to 
which  it  had  been  put  by  the  British,  and  in  1793 
decided  to  build  a  new  church.  The  old  build- 
ing was  torn  down,  and  a  new  church  erected  on 
its  site.  The  stone  which  had  entered  into  the 
construction  of  the  first  two  churches  was  again 
used  in  building  the  new  foundations.  Small 
Dutch  bricks  to  be  placed  around  the  doors  and 
windows  were  imported  from  Holland,  and  the 
brown  stone  used  in  the  construction  of  the  edi- 
fice above  the  foundation  walls  was  quarried 


216          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

from  the  rocky  ridge  that  lies  between  Flatbush 
and  Brooklyn.  Limestone  to  complete  the  foun- 
dations was  obtained  from  the  quarries  of  "  Hell 
Gate."  The  cost  of  the  church  edifice  was  about 
twelve  thousand  dollars,  exclusive  of  much  la- 
bour and  cartage,  which  were  contributed  by  the 
communicants  of  the  church.  In  January,  1797, 
the  consecration  sermon  was  delivered  in  the 
Dutch  language  by  Domine  Schoonmaker. 
Since  1792  services  had  been  conducted  in  Eng- 
lish and  in  Dutch  on  alternate  Sabbaths,  but 
after  the  death  of  Domine  Schoonmaker  in  1824, 
at  the  age  of  ninety  years,  the  use  of  the  Dutch 
language  was  discontinued.  The  Domine's 
body  was  buried  under  the  church,  as  were  those 
of  all  ministers  who  died  in  office,  and  of  the 
earlier  communicants  as  well.  This  custom  ac- 
counts for  the  lack  of  early  dates  upon  the  grave- 
stones in  the  little  cemetery  around  the  church. 
In  one  portion  of  this  graveyard,  where  there  is 
a  total  absence  of  gravestones,  those  who  were 
killed  in  the  Battle  of  Long  Island  were  hur- 
riedly buried.  As  haste  was  necessary,  no  coffins 
or  headstones  were  used.  To  the  memory  of 
these  soldiers  this  section  of  the  graveyard  was 
considered  consecrated  and  no  later  burials  have 
taken  place  therein. 

The  church  is  still  used  regularly  for  service 
each  Sabbath.  In  1836  the  high-backed  pews 
gave  place  to  more  modern  seats,  the  grained 


OF   AMERICA  217 

woodwork  was  painted  white,  and  two  cast  iron 
stoves  were  introduced  to  heat  the  building.  The 
pulpit  was  of  mahogany,  erected  on  a  pedestal 
five  or  six  feet  above  the  level  of  the  floor,  and 
reached  by  a  winding  staircase.  In  1836  blinds 
were  furnished  for  the  first  time  and  the  aisles 
and  pulpit  provided  with  their  first  carpet. 
Later,  in  1862,  the  high  pulpit  gave  place  to  one 
more  modern  and  the  two  stoves  to  a  furnace. 
An  organ  was  installed  and  a  clock  placed  in  the 
steeple.  By  an  ingenious  contrivance  this  clock 
strikes  upon  the  old  bell  presented  to  the  church 
in  1796  by  the  Honourable  John  Vanderbilt,  who 
imported  it  from  Holland  in  one  of  his  merchant 
vessels.  During  its  voyage,  by  the  way,  this  ves- 
sel was  captured  by  a  British  man-of-war  and 
detained  for  some  time  at  Halifax,  so  that  the 
bell  finally  reached  its  proper  destination  by  a 
roundabout  route.  In  1887  the  members  again 
altered  and  refurnished  the  church.  A  door  was 
built  in  the  rear  wall  to  accommodate  the  minis- 
ter, and  a  robing  room  was  added  for  his  use. 
The  interior  walls  were  stencilled  in  quiet  colours, 
and  new  upholstery  and  carpets  were  provided  to 
harmonise  with  the  new  walls.  An  addition  was 
also  built  for  the  new  and  larger  organ  that  was 
purchased,  and  in  1890  stained  glass  windows 
were  introduced.  Many  of  these  were  gifts  in 
memory  of  the  pioneer  families  that  organised 
the  First  Reformed  Dutch  Church  of  Flatbush. 


218          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


THE   MORAVIAN   CHURCH 

BETHLEHEM,    PENNSYLVANIA 

SHAKESPEARE'S  remark  that  some 
men  are  born  great,  others  achieve  great- 
ness and  others  have  greatness  thrust  upon 
them  is  equally  applicable  to  localities.  No  de- 
nomination of  Christians  are  less  seekers  for 
notoriety  than  the  Moravians,  yet  in  the  history 
of  our  country  the  town  of  Bethlehem,  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  its  little  Moravian  church,  has  won 
fame  from  its  association  with  the  names  of  La- 
fayette and  Pulaski. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  historians  that  the 
Moravians  constitute  the  oldest  existing  Protes- 
tant church,  dating  their  origin  from  the  days  of 
John  Huss.  Driven  by  persecution  from  one 
hiding  place  to  another,  they  settled  in  1722  upon 
the  estates  of  Count  Zinzendorf  in  Saxony, 
founding  the  historic  town  of  Herrnhut.  The 
Count,  although  a  strict  Lutheran,  became  deeply 
interested  in  their  religious  views,  and  finally  ac- 
cepting their  belief  he  was  advanced  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Bishop  in  the  Moravian  Church. 

One  of  the  chief  functions  of  these  early 
Moravians  was  the  establishment  of  missions  in 


OF   AMERICA  219 

various  sections  of  the  world  for  the  teaching  of 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  they  understood 
it.  It  was  therefore  natural  that  they  should 
cast  their  eyes  toward  America,  where  the  be- 
nighted might  learn  the  way  of  salvation.  In 
1740  they  purchased  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the 
eastern  section  of  Pennsylvania,  naming  the  city 
they  founded  there  Bethlehem.  The  following 
year  Count  Zinzendorf  came  over,  and  through 
his  efforts  numerous  missions  sprang  up  for  the 
enlightenment  of  the  Indians.  At  Bethlehem 
the  chapel  house,  the  Bishop's  house,  and  the 
residence  of  the  Moravian  Sisterhood  were  clus- 
tered upon  the  original  tract  of  land.  The 
dedication  of  the  famous  chapel  took  place  on 
September  19,  1742,  and  the  first  convert  to  be 
buried  in  the  graveyard  attached  to  the  chapel 
was  an  Indian.  Previous  to  the  erection  of  this 
chapel,  religious  service  was  held  in  a  large  room 
on  the  second  floor  of  "das  gemein  Haus" 
which  they  termed  "  der  Saal " — the  entertain- 
ment room  in  the  home  of  the  Brotherhood. 

On  April  5,  1751,  the  population  of  the  town 
had  increased  to  such  numbers  that  the  small 
chapel  proved  inadequate  and  a  large  room  was 
annexed  to  the  "  Old  Chapel."  In  this  addition 
the  first  floor  was  set  apart  for  the  married  mem- 
bers of  the  Moravian  community,  while  the  upper 
floor  was  used  as  chapel.  The  organ  that  had 
been  built  in  the  old  chapel  was  removed  to  the 


220          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

new,  and  there  the  voices  of  the  "  Moravian 
Nuns  "  blended  with  the  notes  of  the  organ  in 
the  worship  of  God. 

The  establishment  in  the  community  of  one  of 
the  best  conducted  hospitals  that  America  could 
then  boast  of  brought  many  strangers  to  their 
doors.  This  hospital  was  under  the  special  care 
of  the  Moravian  Sisterhood,  and  thither,  on  one 
occasion  came  General  Lafayette  to  have  his 
wound  cared  for;  and  to  this  same  community 
came  Count  Pulaski,  who  had  been  assigned  to 
protect  it  against  incursions  by  hostile  British 
and  Indians.  Accompanying  Count  Pulaski  (or 
Polowsky,  as  his  name  appears  in  the  records  of 
the  community)  was  Colonel  Koabatsch,  "a 
Prussian  officer  of  Huzzars  who  had  been  living 
in  retirement,"  and  who  was  engaged  in  organis- 
ing a  troop  of  cavalry  for  Continental  service. 
From  all  accounts  he  gathered  many  a  recruit 
from  the  younger  members  of  the  community, 
for  the  records  of  the  Moravians  announce  the 
departure  of  Colonel  Koabatsch,  "with  his 
troopers,  armed  and  equipped,  on  July  31, 
1778." 

On  May  15  Pulaski  is  mentioned  in  these  same 
records  as  having  attended  service  in  the  chapel 
with  some  of  his  staff,  in  stately  array.  From 
that  service  he  carried  with  him  the  banner  which 
the  poet  Longfellow  has  immortalised  in  his 
poem,  "The  Hymn  of  the  Moravian  Nuns." 


OF   AMERICA  221 

This  banner,  a  silk  guidon  embroidered  by  the 
sisters,  Pulaski  bore  fluttering  from  an  upright 
lance  at  the  head  of  his  legions,  until  he  fell  at  Sa- 
vannah in  October,  1779.  This  banner,  also,  which 
was  preserved  by  the  comrades  of  Count  Pulaski 
with  religious  care,  was  carried  in  the  procession 
that  welcomed  Lafayette  upon  his  visit  to  this 
country  in  1824,  and  was  later  presented  to  the 
Maryland  Historical  Society,  in  whose  possession 
it  has  remained  since  1844. 

The  sentiment  that  prompted  the  giving  of 
the  banner  has  never  been  fully  revealed,  but  so 
long  as  the  history  of  our  country's  struggle 
shall  be  told  and  the  names  of  her  European 
allies  mentioned,  the  kindly  spirit  of  the  Mora- 
vian Community  who  cared  for  the  sick  of  the 
Continental  troops  and  provided  liberally  for  the 
welfare  of  the  American  patriots  will  be  grate- 
fully remembered. 


222          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


"OLD   JERUSALEM" 

PORTLAND,    MAINE 

THE  old  First  Church  of  Portland,  Maine, 
in  its  organisation,  dates  from  the  first 
settlement  of  the  town,  although  the 
members  were  for  a  number  of  years  too  poor 
to  build  a  meeting-hou§e.  In  1720  they  got  as 
far  as  putting  up  the  framework  of  a  building, 
though  still  with  no  funds  available  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  pastor.  This  first  building  was  used 
by  fishermen  and  soldiers  as  a  barracks,  until  the 
Reverend  Thomas  Smith  came  to  the  settlement 
in  1725,  and  it  was  decided  to  complete  and 
occupy  the  church.  Governor  Wentworth  con- 
tributed the  glass  for  the  windows,  and  a  church 
was  at  last  finished  and  painted. 

A  second  and  more  substantial  church  was 
built  some  years  later,  and  on  July  20, 1740,  was 
dedicated  to  the  worship  of  God.  The  first  old 
structure  became  the  property  of  the  town  and 
was  used  for  civic  purposes  until  it  burned  down 
in  1775.  The  new  edifice  was  a  formidable-look- 
ing pile,  painted  white,  with  green  trimmings. 
Over  the  minister's  head  hung  the  inevitable 
huge  sounding-board,  suspended  by  a  wooden 


OF    AMERICA  223 

rod  from  a  pineapple  carved  in  the  rafters.  Such 
massive  timbers  of  white  oak  were  employed  in 
the  construction  of  the  church  as  to  arouse  the 
opinion  that  the  builder  was  more  accustomed  to 
build  boats  than  meeting-houses,  and  thought  it 
necessary  to  provide  against  fierce  storms.  The 
new  church  had  its  first  bell  in  1758,  imported 
especially,  and  mounted  on  a  special  framework. 
When  the  news  of  the  closing  of  Boston  Har- 
bour in  1774  reached  Portland,  this  same  old 
bell  tolled  for  twenty- four  hours,  joined  in  its 
rite  of  sadness  by  every  other  church  bell  in  the 
little  city.  From  that  day  to  this  the  bell  of  the 
First  Church  is  invariably  waited  for  on  all  occa- 
sions, the  others  joining  in  the  ringing  after  her 
first  peal  is  heard. 

As  the  members  of  the  congregation  increased 
in  numbers  the  old  building  grew  too  small  to 
accommodate  them,  and  a  meeting  was  called  to 
consider  what  had  best  be  done.  In  view  of  the 
substantial  character  of  the  meeting-house  they 
decided  that  it  would  be  more  economical  to  en- 
large it  than  to  erect  a  new  one.  Following  these 
deliberations  they  had  the  end  of  the  meeting- 
house nearest  the  bell  sawed  off,  with  its  sup- 
ports, and  extended  the  side  walls  so  that 
when  the  end  was  again  attached  it  reached  the 
supports  of  the  bell,  which  had  before  stood 
independently.  The  whole  structure  was  then 
encased  with  boards,  so  that  the  framework  sup- 


224          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

porting  the  bell  formed  a  tower  at  the  end  of  the 
church,  and  was  converted  into  the  front  en- 
trance. A  rededication  of  the  edifice  took  place 
in  1761,  when  the  alterations  were  finished. 

The  old  church  has  had  its  times  of  war  as 
well  as  of  peace,  and  long  bore  the  marks  of 
them.  Naturally  the  exposed  position  of  Port- 
land as  a  seaport  made  her  liable  to  attack  from 
the  British,  and  during  one  bombardment  a  can- 
non ball  from  Mowatt's  fleet  passed  through  the 
outer  walls  and  lodged  inside  the  building.  This 
ball  was  preserved  carefully,  and  when  the  pres- 
ent church  was  erected  in  1825,  was  embedded  in 
the  centre  of  the  ceiling.  From  it  was  suspended 
the  large  chandelier  of  the  older  church,  which 
lights  the  congregation  still,  the  building  erected 
in  1825  being  still  occupied  regularly  for  serv- 
ices. 

In  1821  a  special  service  was  held  in  the  First 
Church  for  the  large  number  of  sailors  and  sea- 
faring folk  that  inhabited  the  old  city  of  Port- 
land, and  the  church  was  packed  as  it  had  never 
been  before.  It  was  upon  this  occasion  that  it 
was  given  the  appellation  "  Old  Jerusalem,"  as 
which  it  has  ever  since  been  known. 


OF   AMERICA  225 


ST.   PAUL'S 

EAST    CHESTER,    NEW    YORK 

THE  original  English  settlers  in  West- 
chester  County,  New  York,  seem  to  have 
provided  without  delay  for  their  spiritual 
needs.  As  early  as  1665  such  arrangements 
were  made  as  secured  to  them  the  services  of  a 
rector,  who  watched  over  three  or  four  parishes, 
none  of  them  being  sufficiently  wealthy  to  pay 
for  the  exclusive  services  of  a  rector  of  its  own. 
In  1692  it  was  decided  to  erect  a  church  build- 
ing in  East  Chester,  which  was  completed  in 
1700.  So  closely  allied  at  that  time  were  church 
and  state  in  New  York  that  the  consent  of  the 
Governor  was  asked  for  the  induction  of  a  rector 
into  this  little  parish.  This  being  refused,  an 
application  was  made  to  the  "  General  Assem- 
bly" of  the  State  for  permission  to  separate 
from  the  parish,  which  had  till  then  embodied 
Westchester,  Pelham,  Yonkers  and  New  Ro- 
chelle.  This  was  granted  in  an  act  of  the 
Legislature  establishing  East  Chester  as  an  inde- 
pendent religious  State  organisation,  with  the 
name  of  "the  Parish  of  East  Chester."  This 
Act  was  not,  however,  approved  by  the  Bishop 


226          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

of  London,  and  by  order  of  Queen  Anne  was 
disallowed. 

The  little  church  building  erected  in  1700  is 
described  as  a  frame  building,  twenty-eight  feet 
square,  about  eighteen  feet  to  the  eaves,  the 
sides  of  the  building,  as  well  as  the  roof,  being 
covered  with  shingles.  The  building  stood  on 
the  "  Green,"  and  to-day  is  still  discernible 
among  such  ancient  trees  as  have  endured  the 
ravages  of  time. 

Gradually  the  number  of  communicants  in- 
creased, until  in  1787  East  Chester  became  an 
independent  parish.  In  1795,  under  the  provi- 
sions of  an  act  for  the  relief  and  maintenance 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  America, 
the  parish  was  reorganised,  according  to  the 
rulings  which  separated  the  Church  in  America 
from  the  Established  Church  of  England,  and 
then  for  the  first  time  the  parish  in  East  Chester 
took  the  name  of  St.  Paul. 

By  1764  the  little  old  chapel  had  so  far  suc- 
cumbed to  the  elements  as  to  be  too  cold  for 
worship  in  winter,  despite  the  piety  of  the  early 
fathers.  The  foundations  of  a  new  church  build- 
ing were  laid.  Services  in  the  meantime  were 
conducted  in  the  old  building  until  October, 
1776,  when  the  new  church  was  completed. 

During  the  War  of  the  Revolution,  the  new 
church  building  was  used  as  a  hospital  for  the 
British,  who  tore  portions  of  it  down  from  time 


St.  Paul's,  East  Chester,  New  York 


OF   AMERICA  227 

to  time  and  used  them  as  fuel.  Fortunately  the 
church  authorities  had  been  clever  enough  to 
bury  the  bell  and  the  communion  service,  which 
were  thus  preserved  from  the  enemy.  Four 
years  after  the  close  of  the  war  the  services  were 
resumed,  and  have  continued  till  the  present  day. 
The  churchyard  about  St.  Paul's  is  closely 
connected  with  the  history  of  the  church.  In  its 
three  and  one-half  acres  it  holds  over  six  thou- 
sand bodies.  The  oldest  inscription  legible  bears 
the  date  of  1704.  The  churchyard  is  surrounded 
by  a  substantial  wall,  in  which  are  incorporated 
the  vaults  of  the  older  members  of  the  parish. 
Among  those  whose  remains  rest  in  East  Ches- 
ter churchyard  may  be  found  men  whose  names 
have  been  well  known  in  commercial  circles  in 
New  York  City,  as  well  as  officers  both  of  the 
Continental  troops  and  of  the  British  soldiery 
who  died  in  the  hospital. 


228          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


FIRST   CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCH 

SALEM,    MASSACHUSETTS 

THE  first  Congregational  Church  organ- 
ised in  North  America  was  formed  in 
Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  July  and  Au- 
gust of  the  year  1627.  Only  freed  men  were 
eligible  as  members,  and  from  1627  to  1634  serv- 
ices were  held  in  a  humble  and  unfinished  build- 
ing. In  1634  the  members  got  together  some 
money,  and  began  the  erection  of  a  suitable 
house  of  worship,  which,  however,  was  not  wholly 
completed  till  1639.  Even  then  many  portions 
of  it  were  so  poorly  built  that  for  twelve  years 
later  considerable  repairs  were  still  called  for. 
The  meeting-house  had  a  thatched  roof,  and  the 
walls  were  daubed  with  clay  and  mud,  shingles 
and  clapboards  being  too  expensive  to  be 
thought  of.  The  pulpit,  of  a  style  round  in 
shape  like  a  tub,  was  raised  high  on  a  platform, 
on  the  steps  of  which,  as  well  as  upon  the  two 
flights  of  the  steps  that  led  to  the  gallery,  the 
boys  of  the  congregation  sat  during  worship. 
Sentinels  trod  back  and  forward  across  the 
"  Green  "  during  church  time,  doing  double  serv- 


OF    AMERICA  229 

ice,  on  the  lookout  for  Indian  foes,  and  watch- 
ful lest  any  member  leave  the  church  before  serv- 
ice was  over. 

This  primitive  meeting-house  gave  place  in 
1670  to  one  more  in  accord  with  the  increased 
prosperity  of  the  congregation.  The  new  build- 
ing stood  upon  a  tract  of  land  donated  by  the 
town,  at  the  western  end  of  the  plot  upon  which 
the  old  church  had  stood,  and  "  looking  toward 
the  prison."  The  old  building  was  then  used  for 
a  schoolhouse  and  watchhouse,  and  with  "  Yan- 
kee thrift "  the  old  pulpit  and  the  deacon's  seats 
were  divided  among  the  farmers  and  put  to 
practical  uses  in  their  homes.  The  steady  increase 
in  the  membership  of  the  church  rendered  this 
newer  building  also  unequal  to  the  task  of 
seating  the  congregation,  and  by  1718  a  still 
more  commodious  and  substantial  structure  was 
in  course  of  erection.  This  third  structure  was 
occupied  for  one  hundred  and  eight  years. 

The  First  Congregational  Church  of  Salem 
was  not  so  happy  in  its  career  as  to  be  without 
a  history.  Internal  dissension  split  the  congre- 
gation into  two  parties,  liberal  and  conservative, 
eighteen  years  after  the  third  building  was  put 
up.  So  partisan  did  these  two  sides  become  and 
so  high  did  the  ill-feeling  mount  that  actual  riots 
took  place  between  the  opposing  factions,  and  it 
is  even  on  record  that  the  conservative  element 
on  one  occasion  publicly  "  arraigned  and  admon- 


230          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

ished "  one  member  of  the  congregation,  to- 
gether with  his  wife.  The  progressive  faction 
split  off  indeed  finally  from  the  old  church,  and 
erected  a  new  edifice  not  eighteen  yards  from 
the  old  building,  where  they  worshipped  accord- 
ing to  their  own  lights. 

As  time  went  by  this  fierce  spirit  was,  of 
course,  gradually  modified  and  peace  restored. 
The  present  brick  building,  now  occupied  by  the 
inheritors  of  the  original  congregation,  was  dedi- 
cated in  1826,  and  contains  within  its  walls  many 
relics  of  the  older  structures. 


OF   AMERICA  231 


THE   MORMON    TABERNACLE 
AND    TEMPLE 

SALT    LAKE    CITY,    UTAH 

PERHAPS  no  church  in  America  is  more 
extraordinary  in  point  of  architectural 
achievement  or  religious  history  than  the 
great  Mormon  Tabernacle  at  Salt  Lake  City. 
The  founder  of  the  Mormons,  with  their  doc- 
trine of  plurality  of  wives,  Joseph  Smith,  born 
in  the  State  of  Vermont  in  1805,  and  from  an 
early  age  receiving,  as  he  claimed,  "  visions " 
that  ranged  from  the  dreams  of  Joan  of  Arc  to 
revelations  such  as  the  tablets  of  stone  and 
the  burning,  fiery  furnace  of  the  Old  Testament, 
laid  the  groundwork  of  a  sect  which  was  to 
enjoy  material  prosperity  and  has  left  a  land- 
mark in  the  huge  "  temple  "  in  Utah. 

Joseph  Smith's  first  attempt  to  found  his  Mor- 
mon Church  was  in  1830  in  New  York  City. 
The  opposition  which  was  to  meet  him  every- 
where soon  compelled  him  to  seek  some  other 
locality.  Through  Ohio,  where  a  "  temple  "  was 
erected,  and  on  to  Missouri  he  led  his  increasing 
following,  planting  a  colony  at  Jackson.  There 
had  also  been  a  Mormon  colony  which  prospered 


232          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

for  a  time  on  Beaver  Island  in  Lake  Michigan. 
Popular  prejudice,  however,  compelled  them  to 
abandon  the  land  whereon  they  made  settlements 
and  to  seek  an  abiding  place  elsewhere. 

Meanwhile  missionaries  from  the  Mormon 
Church  were  visiting  various  sections  of  Europe, 
and  sent  to  America  their  first  instalment  of 
proselytes  in  1840.  After  the  violent  death  of 
Joseph  Smith,  the  celebrated  Brigham  Young 
became  the  head  of  the  Church,  and  under  his 
famous  leadership  the  Mormons  continued  their 
exodus  westward,  seeking  some  locality  where 
they  might  live  in  peace,  unmolested  by  those 
who  believed  in  only  one  wife,  and  whose  moral 
opinions  otherwise  differed  from  the  principles 
set  forth  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.  In  July,  1847, 
they  reached  an  oasis  in  the  heart  of  the  great 
American  desert,  and  there  founded  Salt  Lake 
City,  not  far  from  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  where 
Brigham  Young  had  secured  from  the  Mexican 
government  a  broad  tract  of  land.  They  began 
at  once  the  erection  of  the  great  tabernacle  and 
other  requisite  buildings,  but  the  work  proved 
slow,  and  they  had  to  put  forth  herculean  efforts 
in  its  accomplishment.  The  timber  and  stone 
used  in  constructing  the  church,  for  instance, 
had  to  be  hauled  by  oxen  from  the  Cottonwood 
Canon,  twenty  miles  away. 

The  present  great  Mormon  Temple,  which  is 
to  be  distinguished  from  the  Tabernacle,  was 


OF    AMERICA  233 

built  of  solid  granite  brought  at  an  expenditure 
of  tremendous  labour  from  the  Wasatch  Moun- 
tains, forty  to  fifty  miles  distant.  Though  the 
corner  stone  of  the  Temple  was  laid  by  Brigham 
Young  on  April  6,  1853,  it  was  twenty  years 
before  the  building  was  finished  and  dedicated. 
The  cost  of  this  structure  is  estimated  to  have 
been  not  less  than  four  million  dollars. 

Four  other  temples  were  erected,  but  none  was 
so  unusual  in  design  nor  so  curious  as  the  Taber- 
nacle. The  great  Tabernacle  covers  an  area  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  by  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  and  seats  eight  thousand  people.  The  colos- 
sal arch  of  the  roof  springs  from  wall  to  wall 
supported  by  forty- four  sandstone  pillars.  The 
enormous  turtle-backed  edifice  is  impressive  cer- 
tainly if  only  on  account  of  its  size.  Within  is 
the  organ — a  most  noticeable  feature,  one  of  the 
largest  in  the  country.  It  was  constructed  by 
Utah  artisans  from  native  material,  and  may  well 
be  regarded  as  a  creditable  mechanical  and  artis- 
tic achievement. 

In  spite  of  persecution  without  and  frequent 
dissensions  within,  the  Church  of  the  Latter  Day 
Saints  has  prospered  without  intermission  and 
to-day  numbers  almost  half  a  million  followers. 
Twelve  or  fourteen  thousand  of  its  missionaries 
are  scattered  throughout  Europe. 


234          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.   GEORGE'S 

PHILADELPHIA,    PENNSYLVANIA 

IT  is  not  generally  known  that  the  City  of 
Brotherly  Love  can  boast  of  the  oldest 
house  of  worship  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  in  America.  In  other  localities 
where  this  denomination  had  its  beginnings,  the 
various  buildings  dedicated  to  the  service  of  God 
have  gradually  been  replaced  by  more  modern 
edifices,  leaving  St.  George's  in  Philadelphia  the 
oldest  existing  structure. 

To  Captain  Thomas  Webb,  an  officer  in  the 
British  army,  was  due  the  possession  by  the 
Methodists  of  this  house  of  worship.  Captain 
Webb  had  been  a  convert  to  the  preaching  of 
the  Reverend  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  from  him  got 
a  licence  as  a  local  preacher.  At  least  as  early 
as  1768  he  visited  Philadelphia,  and  preached 
there  in  a  sail-loft  in  default  of  any  church  build- 
ing. The  owner  of  the  loft,  on  Dock  Street,  one 
Mr.  Crofts,  was  himself  a  Wesleyan  convert. 

From  this  humble  meeting-place  the  congre- 
gation soon  made  a  change,  and  next  held  serv- 
ices in  a  house  in  Loxley's  Court,  a  small  thor- 


OF   AMERICA  235 

oughf are  running  from  Arch  to  Cherry  Streets, 
just  below  Fourth  Street. 

On  October  21,  1769,  two  regularly  ordained 
missionaries  of  the  denomination  came  to  Phila- 
delphia— the  first  missionaries  sent  by  John 
Wesley  to  America.  One  of  these,  Mr.  Joseph 
Pilmoor,  learning  of  the  presence  in  that  city  of 
Members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  of  more  recent  converts,  decided  to  remain 
and  advance  the  cause  of  his  church  in  Phila- 
delphia. Still  in  default  of  any  place  of  wor- 
ship Mr.  Pilmoor  preached  in  Franklin  Square, 
and  on  some  occasions  from  the  steps  of  Inde- 
pendence Hall.  When  the  weather  forbade  out- 
door gatherings,  the  congregation  met  as  hereto- 
fore in  the  room  in  Loxley's  Court,  which  soon 
became  too  small  to  accommodate  the  increasing 
number  of  those  who  came  to  hear  "  the  Word," 
even  on  rainy  Sundays. 

Meanwhile  there  stood  in  the  city  an  unoccu- 
pied church  building,  erected  by  members  of  the 
High  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  who  had  been 
unable  to  meet  their  payments  on  it  as  they  fell 
due,  and  in  order  to  satisfy  their  creditors  were 
ordered  by  the  court  to  sell  the  building  at  auc- 
tion. The  highest  bidder,  as  it  happened,  was 
an  irresponsible  young  man  of  feeble  mind, 
whose  father  began  at  once  to  seek  a  purchaser 
who  should  take  off  his  hands  a  church  structure 
for  which,  to  all  practical  intents,  he  felt  that  his 


236          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

son  had  no  use.  He  succeeded  in  selling  the 
property  to  Mr.  Miles  Pennington,  one  of  the 
most  active  members  of  the  still  embryonic  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  for  the  same  sum  of 
two  thousand  six  hundred  dollars,  exclusive  of 
the  land  upon  which  the  church  stood,  the  con- 
gregation assuming  the  ground  rent  of  one  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year. 

This  queerly  bought  structure,  fifty-five  by 
eighty-five  feet,  was  regarded  as  an  unusually 
large  one  at  that  time.  It  was  consecrated  No- 
vember 24,  1769,  the  day  following  the  purchase 
by  Mr.  Pennington,  who  dedicated  it  to  the  serv- 
ice of  God  as  a  house  of  worship  according  to 
the  customs  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
The  building  was  far  from  completion,  but  the 
members  nevertheless  rejoiced  over  their  pur- 
chase and  gave  thanks.  The  following  Sunday, 
the  dedication  having  taken  place  on  Friday,  the 
little  structure  was  crowded  to  the  utmost  with 
some  two  thousand  people. 

At  once  the  members  of  the  church  began  to 
plan  for  the  completion  of  the  structure,  which 
was  for  the  most  part  unplastered  and  only 
partly  floored,  and  in  every  way  primitive.  Dur- 
ing the  first  winter,  foot  stoves  had  to  be  used 
as  a  means  for  keeping  the  people  warm  during 
services. 

During  the  eventful  period  of  the  Revolution, 
while  the  British  army  was  in  possession  of  Phila- 


OF   AMERICA  237 

delphia,  St.  George's  Church  was  used  as  a  hos- 
pital, and  later  as  a  "  riding  school "  for  the 
cavalry;  relics  of  the  War  were  gathered  in  and 
about  the  church  in  abundance  for  a  long  time 
after  America  had  secured  her  independence. 

The  great  procession  in  Philadelphia  in  1780 
which  marked  the  bitter  feeling  against  Benedict 
Arnold  formed  in  front  of  St.  George's  Church. 
The  first  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  America  was  held  at  St. 
George's,  and  the  Reverend  Francis  Asbury,  the 
first  American  Bishop  in  the  denomination,  pre- 
sided. We  have  it  on  contemporary  authority 
that  he  cherished  a  warm  love  for  this  first  church 
of  the  Methodists  in  America  and  returned  to  it 
whenever  he  found  it  possible.  His  first  sermon 
in  America  was  preached  within  its  walls. 

While  other  congregations  of  the  same  de- 
nomination have  rebuilt  and  altered  their  houses 
of  worship  to  conform  to  more  modern  ideas, 
St.  George's  has  remained  substantially  as  it  was 
in  the  beginning — a  sacred  memento  of  the  past, 
and  perhaps  the  most  ancient  land-mark  in  the 
whole  world  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


238          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST.  MICHAEL'S 

CHARLESTON,  SOUTH  CAROLINA 

NO  object  sooner  attracts  the  attention  of 
persons  on  board  vessels  entering  the 
harbour  of  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina, than  the  steeple  of  St.  Michael's  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church.  A  closer  examination  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  this  edifice  is  one  of  the  best 
specimens  of  the  art  of  building  exhibited  by 
British  constructive  talent  in  America  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  It  is  one  hundred  and  thirty 
feet  long,  including  the  portico,  and  sixty  feet 
wide,  has  an  elevation  of  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight  feet,  and  is  of  brick,  with  a  slate  roof,  mak- 
ing a  most  attractive  showing  on  the  sandy  slope 
of  the  Charleston  shore. 

At  the  west  end  of  the  building  rises  a  grace- 
ful steeple,  and  at  the  top  of  this  is  a  gilt  ball,  of 
black  cypress,  covered  with  copper,  surmounted 
by  a  weather  vane.  During  the  cyclone  of 
August  25,  1885,  this  ball  was  hurled  to  the 
ground,  making  a  spherical  impression  in  the 
heavy  flag-stone  pavement.  Curiously  enough 
the  wood  was  found  to  be  in  a  perfect  state  of 
preservation,  and  the  coating  was  repaired  and 


St.  Michael's,  Charleston,  South  Carolina 


OF   AMERICA  239 

the  ball  restored  to  its  former  position.  The 
tower  of  the  church  consists  of  a  series  of  orna- 
mental chambers,  rising  gradually  one  above  the 
other,  a  style  involving  greater  difficulties  of 
construction  than  were  usually  incurred  at  the 
period  at  which  the  church  was  built. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  church  was  laid  by  the 
Governor  of  the  State  on  February  17,  1752, 
and  the  church  was  first  opened  for  divine  serv- 
ice on  February  1,  1761.  The  intervening  time 
was  not  wholly  occupied  in  the  construction  of 
the  building,  but  in  a  great  measure  by  the  diffi- 
culty of  procuring  a  clergyman  acceptable  to 
the  parishioners. 

Scarcely  was  the  little  parish  settled  in  its 
new  church  building  when  it  began  to  plan  and 
contrive  to  purchase  a  chime  of  bells.  Three 
years  later,  on  July  15,  1764,  their  hearts  were 
rejoiced  and  their  efforts  rewarded  by  the  arrival 
of  a  ship  from  England  bearing  not  only  the 
coveted  chimes,  but  also  a  church  clock.  No 
American  church  has  ever  possessed  a  better  set 
of  chimes  than  St.  Michael's,  which,  until  the 
installation  of  a  modern  fire  alarm  system  in 
Charleston  in  1882,  gave  warning  from  its  steeple 
of  all  fires  in  the  city. 

Since  Charleston  was  the  chief  city  in  the 
Colony,  Governor  Boone  contributed  to  the  fur- 
nishing of  St.  Michael's,  giving  the  parish  a 
silver  communion  service,  engraved  with  the 


240          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

name  of  the  donor  and  the  date  of  its  presenta- 
tion to  the  parish.  To  these  some  of  the  citizens 
of  Charleston  added  two  silver  alms  dishes  and 
a  silver  christening  bowl.  As  the  years  passed, 
gifts  of  still  other  pieces  of  eucharistic  silver 
augmented  the  treasures  of  St.  Michael's,  until 
they  now  excel  those  of  almost  any  other  church 
in  the  South. 

The  next  most  coveted  possession  was  a  church 
organ,  which  the  parish  secured  in  August,  1768; 
and  on  Christmas  Eve,  1771,  a  marble  baptis- 
mal font  was  placed  in  the  position  which  it 
still  occupies. 

As  in  many  other  communities  the  breaking 
out  of  the  War  of  Independence  was  the  signal 
for  many  differences  of  opinion  and  dissensions 
in  the  church.  The  rector,  a  staunch  Loyalist, 
held  exasperatingly  to  the  performance  of  his 
vows  as  a  clergyman  of  the  Established  Church 
of  England,  while  most  of  the  parishioners, 
especially  the  vestrymen,  were  equally  earnest 
in  their  desire  to  revolt  absolutely  from  English 
rule.  This  situation  resulted  finally  in  a  demand 
for  the  English  rector's  resignation. 

While  the  British  occupied  Charleston  during 
the  Revolution  ammunition  was  so  scarce  that 
they  robbed  St.  Michael's  of  its  roof  to  secure 
lead  for  bullets.  Service  was  interrupted  and 
no  regular  rector  was  secured  until  July  29, 
1781.  The  church  plate,  being  very  valuable, 


OF   AMERICA  241 

was  placed  in  the  keeping  of  one  of  the  vestry- 
men, who  removed  it  wholly  from  Charleston 
until  the  war  was  ended.  So  closely  allied  were 
the  church  and  state  at  that  time  that  the  per- 
mission of  the  Governor  was  considered  neces- 
sary before  such  precautionary  steps  were  taken. 

The  communicants  of  St.  Michael's  con- 
tributed generously  to  the  cause  of  freedom, 
and  as  a  result  the  finances  of  the  parish  suffered 
considerably  for  several  years  after  the  close  of 
the  war.  Since  it  was  unable  to  support  a  rec- 
tor, after  the  evacuation  of  the  British  and  the 
re-entry  of  the  South  Carolina  regiments,  the 
chaplain  of  one  of  these  read  service  regularly 
in  the  church  for  many  months.  In  May,  1785, 
the  two  parishes  of  St.  Michael's  and  St.  Philip's 
were  incorporated  together.  Six  years  there- 
after, individual  corporations  were  formed 
again,  and  in  three  years  St.  Michael's  was  fully 
repaired  and  a  parapet  built  on  both  the  north 
and  the  south  sides.  This  latter  addition  proved 
inadvisable  and  was  removed  in  1847. 

So  popular  was  the  church  that  many  bodies 
held  meetings  within  its  walls,  among  them  the 
Free  Masons  and  various  Revolutionary  soci- 
ties,  the  Order  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  the  Pal- 
metto. When  it  became  evident  in  1811  and 
1812  that  the  difficulties  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  would  again  lead  to  war 
the  citizens  of  Charleston  assembled  in  St. 


242          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Michael's  to  decide  in  what  manner  they  could 
best  aid  the  Government  in  its  insistence  upon 
the  rights  of  American  citizens. 

On  Sunday,  November  19,  1863,  just  after 
the  litany  had  been  read,  a  bomb  from  the  United 
States  batteries  at  Morris  Island  exploded  at 
the  church  door,  while  still  another  struck  the 
church  steeple.  As  the  bombardment  continued 
the  congregation  was  dismissed  without  the  usual 
sermon.  General  Hood's  army  used  the  steeple 
of  St.  Michael's  as  a  look-out  station,  suspending 
a  rope  ladder  from  the  second  balcony  to  be  used 
in  case  of  a  hurried  retreat. 

As  a  precautionary  measure  the  organ  had 
been  removed  from  the  church,  and  the  bells, 
at  the  suggestion  of  General  Beauregard,  had 
been  sent  to  Columbia  early  in  the  conflict  as  a 
contribution  from  the  church  toward  supplying 
metal  for  casting  cannon.  Though  not  used 
for  this  purpose,  during  Sherman's  march  to 
the  sea  they  were  wantonly  broken  into  many 
pieces  by  reckless  members  of  his  army.  After 
the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  pieces  were  care- 
fully gathered  together  and  sent  back  to  Lon- 
don where  they  were  made.  There  they  were 
recast  and  finally  made  their  re-entrance  into 
Charleston.  They  were  met  with  joyful  accla- 
mation by  members  of  every  religious  denomina- 
tion throughout  the  city. 

Great  repairs  were  necessary  after  the  bom- 


OF   AMERICA  243 

bardment  of  Charleston,  in  which  St.  Michael's 
had  received  much  damage.  One  end  of  the  chan- 
cel had  been  torn  off,  pews  had  been  demolished, 
and  to  make  matters  worse  curio  hunters  had 
broken  off  and  carried  away  portions  of  the  pul- 
pit and  chancel.  The  church  was  again  open  for 
service  on  November  26,  1865.  Twenty  years 
later  the  great  cyclone  that  struck  Charleston 
wrecked  St.  Michael's  spire,  together  with  por- 
tions of  the  slate  roof.  In  the  following  year, 
on  August  31,  1886,  the  great  earthquake  oc- 
casioned the  most  serious  disaster  that  St. 
Michael's  church  had  yet  experienced.  It  shat- 
tered the  walls  in  numerous  places,  threw  the 
spire  out  of  the  perpendicular,  and  sunk  it  eight 
inches.  The  shock  also  opened  a  fissure  in  the 
church  floor  several  inches  wide  which  ran 
through  the  vestibule  and  up  the  middle  aisle  for 
a  distance  of  ten  or  twelve  feet,  while  the  por- 
tico seemed  about  to  topple  into  the  street  and 
the  galleries  to  tumble  into  the  body  of  tha 
church.  At  an  expense  of  no  less  than  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  the  church  was  finally  re- 
stored to  its  original  condition,  and  is  still  one 
of  the  most  interesting  landmarks  in  Charleston. 


244          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


ST   ANDREWS 

RICHMOND,,    STATED    ISLAND 

ONE  of  the  most  desirable  classes  of  im- 
migrants into  the  New  Netherlands 
before  the  establishment  of  English 
rule  was  the  Huguenot  element  that  settled  along 
the  eastern  shore  of  Staten  Island.  After  the 
Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685  men 
and  women  of  this  faith  came  over  the  seas  in 
increasing  numbers,  and  a  chaplain  from  the 
fort  on  Manhattan  Island  visited  them  from 
time  to  time  to  hold  religious  service  in  French, 
or  for  their  Dutch  neighbours  in  the  language 
of  the  Netherlands,  the  form  of  worship  in  either 
case  being  that  of  the  Established  Church  of 
England. 

The  little  church  organised  about  this  time  at 
Richmond  was  the  first  on  Staten  Island.  It 
was  called  St.  Andrew's,  and  regular  services 
were  held  in  it  during  the  last  quarter  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  The  first  church  building 
was  erected  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  of 
England,  who  sent  out  the  Reverend  Eneas  Mc- 
Kenzie  in  1706  with  a  silver  communion  serv- 


OF   AMERICA  245 

ice,  which  the  little  parish  still  numbers  among 
its  treasures  and  memorabilia. 

The  prosperity  of  the  parish  was  not  long 
in  giving  rise  to  some  jealousy  among  the  Dutch 
residents  of  Staten  Island.  Mr.  McKenzie  ac- 
cordingly imported  from  Europe  copies  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  printed  in  Dutch, 
which  so  pleased  the  Staten  Island  Dutch  that 
discord  was  forever  banished.  Indeed,  in  a  let- 
ter written  in  1748  to  the  Synod  of  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  in  Holland  we  read  that  "  on 
Staten  Island,  within  the  last  twenty  years,  the 
Dutch  Church  has  lost  half  its  members.  Our 
people  mix  with  the  English,  who  have  an  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  the  Dutch  Church  is  in  danger 
of  extinction." 

In  1711  St.  Andrew's  parish  received  a  gift 
of  a  building  site  and  a  burying  ground,  and 
two  years  later  a  Dutch  nabob,  by  name  Adol- 
phus  Philipse,  with  the  Mayor  of  New  York, 
Ebenezer  Wilson,  jointly  contributed  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  acres.  The  proceeds  from  the 
sale  of  this  land  enabled  the  parish  to  acquire  a 
more  suitable  location  for  a  glebe;  and  in  the 
same  year,  1713,  to  put  up  a  substantial  struc- 
ture of  stone.  The  earlier  church  edifice  was 
torn  down,  as  was  also  in  time  the  newer  struc- 
ture, both  of  which  had  occupied  the  site  upon 
which  now  stands  a  later  church  building,  dating 
from  before  the  American  Revolution. 


246          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

Like  some  other  old  churches,  St.  Andrew's 
-Kas  been  the  scene  of  battles  as  well  as  prayer. 
The  "  Queen's  Rangers,"  of  the  British  Army, 
were  encamped  in  the  village  of  Richmond  in 
1776,  and  the  Battle  of  Richmond  was  fought 
in  and  about  St.  Andrew's  Church.  On  Au- 
gust 8,  1777,  a  detachment  of  the  Continental 
Army  crossed  the  Kill  von  Kull,  and  marched  to 
Richmond,  where  they  were  met  by  a  party  of 
British.  A  slight  resistance  ensued,  after  which 
the  British  retreated  down  the  hill  to  St.  An- 
drew's and  took  refuge  inside  its  walls.  The 
Americans  after  riddling  every  pane  of  glass  in 
the  windows  with  their  rapid  fire  advanced  still 
closer  and  continued  discharging  their  volleys 
into  the  church  through  the  windows  until  every 
man  of  the  British  was  either  killed  or  driven 
out  of  the  building. 

In  course  of  time  St.  Andrew's  became  the 
mother  of  some  of  the  most  active  of  later  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  parishes,  not  only  on  Staten 
Island,  but  elsewhere  as  well.  The  Reverend 
Richard  Channing  Moore  went  from  St.  An- 
drew's in  1814  to  serve  the  interests  of  the 
Church  as  Bishop  of  Virginia.  St.  Mary's 
Chapel  of  the  Church  of  the  Ascension  at  West 
Brighton  was  an  off -shoot,  and  the  beautiful 
edifice  in  which  the  parish  of  St.  John's  Church 
worships  at  Clifton  was  built  to  accommodate 


OF   AMERICA  247 

parishioners  of  St.  Andrew's  residing  in  that 
vicinity. 

The  venerable  house  of  worship  of  St.  An- 
drew's is  still  eminent  in  the  religious  life  ofi 
Staten  Island,  the  parish  maintaining  simple  but 
progressive  methods  in  the  "  good  fight  of  faith," 
and  constantly  recruiting  new  members.  The 
original  charter  of  the  parish,  the  old  prayer 
books,  the  pulpit  cover,  the  quaint  silver  com- 
munion service,  and  the  old  bell,  all  of  them 
sent  over  as  tokens  of  good  will  by  Queen  Anne 
in  1706,  are  still  guarded  zealously  as  memorials 
of  a  spiritual  and  material  past  that  the  parish- 
ioners regard  as  not  without  its  glory. 


248          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 


OLD  MISSION  CHURCH 

MACKINAC   ISLAND,   MICHIGAN 

SOME  of  the  most  fascinating  chapters  of 
American  history  are  those  which  Fran- 
cis Parkman  made  his  own,  and  some  of 
the  most  interesting  passages  of  those  chapters 
deal  with  the  Island  of  Mackinaw,  or  Mackinac. 
Situated  in  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  on  a  high- 
way of  the  Great  Lakes,  it  has  been  since  the 
seventeenth  century  the  scene  of  operations  by 
Indians,  Jesuit  missionaries,  explorers,  coureur 
des  bois  and  voyageurs,  as  well  as  agents  of  the 
great  Astor  Fur  Company;  while  British  and 
American  soldiers  have  successively  occupied  the 
white  fort  on  the  hillside,  built  in  1783.  Wash- 
ington Irving  in  "  Astoria  "  gives  a  vivid  picture 
of  Mackinaw  in  these  early  days. 

The  island  continued  a  centre  of  population 
and  trade  for  many  years,  and  its  Indians  in 
time  attracted  the  attention  of  the  outside  world 
as  a  missionary  field.  In  1820  the  Reverend 
Dr.  Jedidiah  Morse,  a  minister  of  the  Congrega- 
tional faith,  and  father  of  the  inventor  of  the 
telegraph,  was  commissioned  by  the  United 
States  Government  to  visit  Mackinaw  and  report 


OF   AMERICA  249 

on  a  plan  for  advancing  the  civilization  and  hap- 
piness of  its  motley  population.  The  island  was 
a  cardinal  strategic  point  in  missionary  as  in 
military  matters,  and  in  1823  a  mission  was 
established  there,  with  the  Reverend  William 
Ferry  as  superintendent.  The  main  mission 
buildings,  which  still  stand,  have  for  forty  years 
or  more  been  used  as  a  hotel,  known  as  the  Mis- 
sion House.  It  is  on  the  verandah  of  this 
quaint  hostelry  that  Dr.  Edward  Everett  Hale 
begins  his  famous  story  of  "  The  Man  Without 
a  Country."  The  old  church  of  the  mission  sur- 
vives also  and  has  lately  been  reconsecrated  to 
God's  uses. 

The  church  building,  known  now  as  "  The 
Old  Mission  Church,"  was  built  in  1829,  and  Mr. 
Ferry  was  the  regular  pastor.  Mackinaw,  in  those 
days  rivalled  Detroit  as  one  of  the  chief  towns  in 
Michigan,  with  a  population  much  more  pictu- 
resque, so  that  a  glimpse  of  one  of  the  early 
congregations  must  have  been  an  edifying  sight. 
The  teachers,  the  mission  pupils,  Indian  and 
half-blood,  the  clerks  of  the  fur  company, 
traders,  officers  and  soldiers  from  the  fort  made 
up  a  motley  throng.  It  is  recorded  that  the 
fort  soldiers  used  to  march  down  from  the  hill, 
and  stacking  their  guns  by  the  church  door  would 
detail  one  man  to  guard  the  arms  while  the  rest 
of  the  company  worshipped  inside.  About  eighty 
regular  church  members  were  included  in  the 


250          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

church  enrolment,  among  them  the  famous  his- 
torian of  the  Indians  and  pioneer  times,  Henry 
R.  Schoolcraft. 

In  due  course  changes  took  place  at  Mackinaw, 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  church,  as  of  the  island, 
fell  away.  The  Indians  departed  for  remoter 
places,  and  John  Jacob  Astor's  retirement  from 
the  fur  company  drove  many  other  residents  to 
fresh  fields  of  occupation.  Mr.  Ferry,  the  pas- 
tor, moved  away  also,  and  in  1837,  the  mission 
being  definitely  discontinued,  the  little  church 
fell  gradually  into  disuse.  Be  it  noted,  never- 
theless, that  the  mission  had  made  a  record  of 
five  hundred  Indian  converts,  including  the  cele- 
brated Indian  medicine  man  Chuska,  who  died 
in  the  Christian  faith  and  was  buried  on  Round 
Island,  Mackinaw's  nearest  neighbour  in  the 
Straits. 

For  sixty  years  then  following  the  Old  Mis- 
sion Church  was  without  organisation,  pastor  or 
congregation.  All  this  neglect  it  survived,  not- 
withstanding, growing  in  the  course  of  time  a 
more  and  more  interesting  landmark.  Even  the 
use  of  its  basement  for  many  years  by  an  en- 
terprising laundry  firm  could  not  impair  its  four- 
square dignity. 

The  late  Reverend  Meade  C.  Williams,  in  his 
very  interesting  book  "  Early  Mackinac,"  which 
is  heartily  recommended  to  all  who  are  interested 
in  this  lovely  island,  says  the  church  is  "prob- 


OF   AMERICA  251 

ably  the  oldest  Protestant  church  structure  in 
the  whole  Northwest.  While  other  ancient 
churches  have  been  enlarged  and  changed  in  the 
course  of  years,  this  one,  from  end  to  end,  and 
in  its  entire  structural  form,  remains  the  same  as 
at  the  time  of  its  early  dedication.  It  has  stood 
four  square  to  all  the  winds  that  have  blown,  as 
'solid  as  the  faith  of  those  who  built  it,'1  un- 
changed from  its  original  style  and  its  bare  and 
simple  appearance  with  its  old  weather  vane 
and  its  wonderfully  bright  tin-topped  belfry — 
a  mute  memorial  of  a  most  worthy  history  of 
two  generations  ago.  Despite  its  disuse  and 
its  increasing  dilapidation,  it  has  long  been  an 
object  of  tender  interest,  and  has  been  visited  by 
hundreds  every  season.  It  is  gratifying,  there- 
fore, to  know  that  a  number  of  the  summer 
cottagers  and  other  visitors,  joined  by  some  of 
the  island  residents,  have  purchased  the  old 
church,  and  repaired  and  restored  it  so  as  to 
present  the  old-time  appearance  in  which  it  had 
been  known  for  well  nigh  seventy  years.  The 
grey,  weatherworn  exterior  is  purposely  left 
unpainted.  The  same  old  '  high-up  '  pulpit,  the 
plain,  square  pews  with  doors  on  them,  the  dimin- 
utive panes  of  glass  in  the  windows,  the  quaint, 
old-fashioned  gallery  at  the  entrance  end — all 
these  features  appear  as  at  the  first.  The  prop- 
erty is  held  in  trust  for  the  purchasers  by  a  board 

iMiss   Woodson's   "Anne." 


252          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

of  seven  trustees,  five  of  whom  are  to  be  visitors 
who  own  or  rent  cottages,  and  two  to  be  residents 
of  the  village.  There  is  no  ecclesiastical  organi- 
sation in  connection  with  the  building,  nor  any 
denominational  colour  or  control.  The  motive 
in  the  movement  has  been,  first,  to  preserve  the 
old  sanctuary  as  a  historic  relic  of  the  island 
and  memorial  of  early  mission  work;  and,  sec- 
ond, to  use  it  as  a  chapel  for  union  religious 
services  during  the  few  weeks  when  summer 
tourists  crowd  the  island." 


OF   AMERICA  253 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH 

NEWARK,    NEW    JERSEY 

THE  first  fully  organised  Church  of  Christ 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  dates  its  existence  back  to 
1665.  Religious  services  had  been  conducted  for 
a  number  of  years  at  irregular  intervals  by  min- 
isters of  the  faith  of  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church,  but  their  flock  had  no  church  edifice,  no 
regular  minister,  and  no  standing  in  the  Synod 
of  the  Church  of  Holland.  Up  to  August,  1665, 
only  four  families  of  English  had  settled  in  the 
vicinity  of  Newark,  and  the  advent  of  Governor 
Philip  Carteret,  with  his  retinue  of  servants  and 
dissolute  gentlemen  from  the  household  of  the 
Duke  of  York,  brought  no  additional  religious 
support  into  the  little  community. 

Foreseeing  the  necessity  of  careful  training 
for  their  young  in  such  surroundings,  the  pioneer 
settlers  at  Newark  brought  with  them  a  minister 
of  the  Scotch  Presbyterian  Church,  the  Rever- 
end Abraham  Pierson,  who  made  his  residence 
with  them  for  many  years,  supporting  himself 
and  his  family  by  tilling  the  soil. 

After  careful  consideration  and  frequent  de- 


254          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

liberations,  these  pioneers  decided  on  September 
10,  1663,  to  build  a  church  edifice,  and  upon 
March  12  of  the  following  year  the  cutting  of 
timber  was  begun.  A  lack  of  funds  prevented 
the  speedy  completion  of  the  building,  so  that 
eighteen  months  elapsed  before  it  was  floored 
and  ready  for  occupancy.  Even  then,  it  was  a 
crude  thing  enough,  there  having  been  much 
trouble  to  secure  a  carpenter  willing  to  under- 
take the  work  for  the  small  stipend  the  mem- 
bers could  aif  ord  to  pay. 

The  church  was  an  humble  structure,  thirty- 
six  by  twenty-six  feet,  thirteen  feet  between  the 
joists,  and  "  with  a  lenten  to  it  all  the  length, 
which  made  it  thirty-six  feet  square."  The  en- 
trance door,  as  well  as  the  windows  in  each  side 
of  it,  were  arched,  and  a  small  half -moon  window 
was  placed  over  the  door,  according  to  the 
architectural  style  then  in  vogue. 

Two  rudely  constructed  appendages  were  built 
at  two  corners  of  the  edifice;  these  were  termed 
"flankers"  and  were  made  with  a  palisade 
carefully  built  so  as  to  screen  and  protect 
the  watch-guard  who  patrolled  outside  during 
service  to  warn  of  any  unexpected  attacks  of 
hostile  Indians.  These  "  flankers  "  gave  good 
service  during  King  Philip's  War. 

This  first  church  edifice  of  the  Presbyterians 
of  Newark  stood  on  the  west  side  of  Broad 
Street,  and  was  used  as  the  "  town-house  "  as 


First  Presbyterian  Church,  Newark,  New  Jersey 


OF   AMERICA  255 

well  as  a  place  of  worship;  all  the  important 
transactions  of  the  settlement,  whether  religious, 
civil  or  military,  during  the  first  half -century  of 
its  existence,  took  place  in  this  Presbyterian 
rneeting-house. 

A  second  church  edifice  was  begun  April  12, 
1714,  and  dedicated  August  10,  1716.  This 
church  was  of  stone,  forty- four  feet  square,  and 
very  substantial,  though  devoid  of  all  attempt 
at  ornamentation.  So  large  did  it  seem  at  the 
time  as  to  arouse  conjecture  whether  the  little 
village  of  Newark  could  ever  supply  enough  in- 
habitants to  fill  it.  On  June  7,  1753,  King 
George  III.  of  England  granted  a  charter 
greatly  strengthening  the  standing  of  the  little 
organisation  in  the  nearby  Presbyteries,  as  well 
as  the  religious  ardour  of  its  members.  In  1775 
the  church  building  was  reroofed  and  carefully 
repaired,  only  to  be  wantonly  desecrated  by  the 
British  during  the  Revolution.  At  that  time 
also  its  membership  was  depleted  sorely,  and  the 
church  records  wholly  destroyed,  disasters  most 
grievously  felt. 

After  the  close  of  the  War  the  interior  was 
restored  to  its  former  condition,  only  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  pews  being  altered.  The  pulpit 
stood  upon  the  west  side  between  the  windows; 
in  front  of  the  pulpit  was  the  seat  of  the  pre- 
centor, while  on  each  side  was  constructed  a  large 
square  pew;  the  one  at  the  right  for  the  family 


256          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

of  the  minister,  the  one  on  the  left  for  any 
representative  of  the  Royal  family  of  England 
who  might  choose  to  attend  worship  there.  The 
body  of  the  church  was  supplied  with  rows  of 
plain  benches  whereon  the  various  families  of 
the  congregation  were  seated.  The  bell-rope 
hung  down  from  the  belfry  into  the  middle  aisle. 
In  September,  1787,  the  foundation  of  the 
present  church  edifice  was  begun.  It  was  care- 
fully planned  in  accordance  with  the  American 
architectural  church  style  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  building  is  one  hun- 
dred feet  in  depth,  including  the  steeple,  which 
projects  eight  feet  in  front  of  the  main  building. 
Two  tiers  of  windows  on  each  side,  five  in  each 
tier,  give  ample  light  and  ventilation,  while  in 
the  rear  wall  is  inserted  a  large  Venetian  window 
that  excites  the  admiration  of  all  who  attend 
worship  there.  The  interior  is  plain  but  at- 
tractive, and  much  venerated  by  Presbyterians 
throughout  New  Jersey.  The  old  arrangement 
of  the  pews  and  pulpit  is  maintained  to  this 
day.  The  congregation  has  also  preserved  the 
old  original  bell,  purchased  twenty-five  years 
after  the  erection  of  the  second  church,  recast 
in  1786,  and  still  to-day  calling  the  congregation 
together  for  worship  in  the  old  edifice. 


OF   AMERICA  257 


SAN   MIGUEL    CHURCH 

SANTA  FE,   NEW    MEXICO 

BECAUSE  of  her  name,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  it  is  fitting  that  Santa  Fe,  the 
"  City  of  the  Holy  Faith,"  should  be  the 
site  of  the  oldest  church  in  the  United  States. 
Once  the  scene  of  bloodshed  and  conquest,  in  the 
days  when  the  Spanish  explorers  and  priests 
came  into  a  strange  country  and  undertook  the 
pacification  and  enlightenment  of  the  Indians, 
Santa  Fe  is  now  distinctly  a  city  of  peace. 
Nestling  in  the  lovely  Sangre  de  Cristo  valley, 
she  basks  in  the  warm  Southern  sunshine  with 
an  air  of  content  which  makes  it  hard  to  realise 
that  her  quiet  could  ever  have  been  disturbed  by 
the  harsh  cries  of  warring  Indians  and  the  crash 
of  Spanish  musketry. 

In  what  is  now  the  oldest  part  of  the  town, 
called  by  the  Spaniards  "  Analco,"  San  Miguel 
Church  has  stood  for  nearly  four  centuries.  In 
1540  this  "  Cradle  of  Christianity  in  America," 
as  it  has  been  called,  was  reared  out  of  adobe  by 
the  Spaniards.  Realising  the  treacherous  nature 
of  their  Indian  neighbours,  these  forerunners  of 
the  Old  World  civilisation  made  the  walls  of  the 


258          HISTORIC    CHURCHES 

church  extremely  thick,  for  protection  against 
possible  attacks — a  wise  provision  which  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  preservation  of  the  building 
throughout  many  stormy  years  of  turmoil  and 
struggle. 

The  Pueblo  revolution  of  1680  dealt  the  hopes 
of  Spanish  colonisation  a  crushing  blow.  After 
a  valiant  stand  against  the  renegades  the  Span- 
iards reluctantly  withdrew  from  the  city,  and 
Santa  Fe  was  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  Indians. 
The  slumbering  savagery  of  the  Pueblos  awoke 
with  accumulated  vigour.  Eager  for  plunder, 
the  greedy  horde  swarmed  over  the  town.  They 
seized  the  Spanish  archives,  and  tearing  down 
the  ornaments  of  San  Miguel  Church,  set  the 
torch  to  the  pile,  as  if  to  testify  to  their  utter 
revolt  from  the  Christian  faith.  During  the 
next  twelve  years  when  they  turned  again  to  the 
worship  of  snakes  and  stone  idols,  San  Miguel 
suffered  greater  desecration  than  has  ever  fallen 
to  the  lot  of  any  other  church  in  America. 

At  last,  in  1692,  under  the  able  leadership  of 
De  Vargas,  the  Spaniards  inflicted  righteous 
vengeance  upon  the  Pueblos.  Before  he  suc- 
ceeded in  overcoming  the  Indians,  De  Vargas 
made  a  religious  vow,  the  spot  where  he  knelt  be- 
ing marked  afterward  by  the  erection  of  a  chapel 
(the  Rosario) .  After  a  fight  of  eleven  hours  on 
September  13,  the  Indians  yielded,  and  with 
true  Catholic  piety,  which  he  did  not  forget  in 


San  Miguel  Church,  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico 


OF   AMERICA  259 

the  hour  of  his  triumph,  De  Vargas  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  gave  thanks  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  to 
whose  assistance  he  ascribed  his  victory. 

The  conquerors  soon  set  about  repairing  the 
church  of  San  Miguel.  Though  wantonly  dev- 
astated by  the  Indians,  its  massive  walls  were 
still  standing,  and  by  1710  the  restoration  of  the 
building  was  completed.  In  commemoration  of 
this  event  an  inscription  was  placed  upon  one 
of  the  vigas  near  the  door  of  the  church,  bearing 
this  announcement: 

"  El  Senor  Marques  de  la  Penuela  hizo  esta 
fabrica.  El  Alferes  Real  Don  Agustin  Flores 
Vergara  su  criao  ano  de  1710."  ("The  Mar- 
quis de  la  Penuela  erected  this  building.  The 
Royal  Ensign  Don  Agustin  Flores  Vergara  his 
servant.  The  year  1710.") 

The  restorers  of  San  Miguel  utilised  the  orig- 
inal massive  walls  of  adobe,  and  covered  the 
church  with  a  heavy  roof,  made  of  strong  vigas, 
which  were  supported  at  each  end  by  carved  tim- 
bers. An  old  copper  bell,  cast  in  1350,  hangs  in 
the  rude  belfry. 

Inside  the  church,  among  many  other  inter- 
esting relics,  a  number  of  paintings  of  religious 
subjects  are  still  preserved,  such  as  St.  Michael 
and  the  Dragon,  and  the  Annunciation,  some  of 
them  containing  holes  which  were  pierced  in  their 
canvas  by  arrows  during  the  Indian  fights  in 
the  old  days. 


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